A Diamond in the Rough
by Hawkstorm14
Summary: Follows Temari and Shikamaru's daughter, Kira, and her teammates in the Village Hidden in the Sand, as they experience the hardships of life that come with being a ninja. "What a pain."
1. Bickering and Running

**Hey, here's my story. It's pretty legit, in fact it's too legit to quit, so you guys should totes read it! I just pulled a Dr. Seuss on you guys! Yeah, okay, nice talking to ya! :) Yahoo!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters, but I do own these characters that I made up. And I will one day own Naruto, just you wait, for I see it in the future!**

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><p>The sunlight began to barely nudge its way into the heavy curtained room that was otherwise completely dark. The sound of birds chirping could be heard from outside the window, singing a musical melody. The light from the sun dimly lit the small room casting a streak of light across the room and onto the face of a sleeping girl.<p>

"Kira! You need to wake up. It's already a quarter to eight!" said a voice from behind the closed door.

Kira's dark emerald eyes slowly opened and she turned over to reach for the clock sitting on a table beside her bed. She tried to focus eyes fogged up with sleep to look at the confusing jumble of numbers around the clock. Sure enough the clock read seven forty-five exactly. _Ugh_, she thought, _if I don't get moving soon I'll be late for morning training. Again_. This would be the third time she had over-slept this week. And it was only Thursday. But then again, her bed was nice, and soft, and comfortable. She dropped the clock onto the floor and hugged the fluffy pillow to her head. She let it envelope her in its feathery warmth and gently closed her eyes again.

"I don't hear any movement in there! Get out of bed this instant or else I'll come in there myself!" the voice yelled again.

Kira groaned and shouted back, "Give me five more minutes!"

The door swung open and a tall blonde woman with four pigtails in her hair stood in the doorway looking down at Kira with her hands on her hips. "Oh no you don't! I'm not falling for that one again. Five minutes will turn into ten which will turn into fifteen, and that's not going to work on me!"

The blonde woman walked over to the heavy drapes and pulled them apart, letting the sunlight flood into the room. Kira immediately pulled the covers over her head and let out a low groan.

"See, it's a beautiful day outside and you're going to miss it if you sleep in all day." The woman walked over to Kira and gently pried the covers from her hands and ripped them off the bed. Kira pulled the pillow over her head and hugged it tighter to her. "Seriously honey, I hate doing this to you but you really need to get up or you're going to be-." The blonde woman tried to finish but she was interrupted by a pillow being thrown in her face. The woman's face turned red with fury and she clenched her fists. "OKAY THAT DOES IT! YOU ARE GETTING OUT OF THIS BED WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!" The blonde woman grabbed Kira by the ankles, only to have Kira grab a hold of the bed post. The woman pulled at Kira's ankles until the girl was in the air completely horizontal to the ground with a death grip on the bed post.

"Let go, Mom!" Kira screamed.

"No! You are getting up this very instant!" The woman pulled with all her might and yanked Kira off of the bed and onto the floor. Kira lay in a heap and slowly sat up to look at her mom angrily. Her mom brushed her hands off and looked back at her daughter triumphantly. "Okay then. Get dressed and get going before you're late again." The woman left the room and slammed to door shut behind her.

Kira let out a tired sigh and groggily got up from her position on the floor. She slowly pulled off her sleep shorts and tank top and put on some fish net shorts that stopped about mid-thigh. Next she slipped on a sleeveless dark green dress over her head and then tied a navy blue ribbon around her waist. She walked over to a mirror hanging on the wall over her desk and quickly ran a brush through her hair before tying it up in a high ponytail. Her black bangs fell just above her eyes and her hair was just short enough to stick up every which way in her ponytail.

She sighed and looked at her reflection in the mirror. _Everything seems to be in place, but something's missing. _She scratched her forehead trying to figure out what was out of place. _Ah ha! _She looked down at her dresser and noticed the headband sitting on top. She grabbed the headband with the traditional sand village symbol on it and tied it comfortably around her right upper arm. _There, that should be everything._ She stretched her arms over her head and let out a long yawn. She grabbed a giant fan leaning against the wall, placing it through a strap on her back and quickly slipped on her sandals. Kira trudged down the stairs and grabbed a piece of bread lying on the kitchen counter before heading out the door. She slammed the front door shut as a reminder to her mom that she hadn't forgiven her yet for waking her up and she headed out on her way to the training grounds.

There was sand lying in piles around the village from the previous sandstorms and it clung to all the local buildings. Kira passed by a house where an old man stood on the roof top, trying to sweep the remaining sand off. _This sandstorm hadn't seemed to cause too much damage to the village this time_. The bright blue sky was clear as day and not a single cloud could be spotted. _I guess what they say is true_, she thought to herself, _the sky always is the prettiest after a big storm_. It seemed like Sunagakure was finally going to get some good weather. The past couple of days had been filled with sandstorms and it was nice to have a little break and get to see the blue sky again.

Kira sighed looking up, wishing there were at least one cloud in the sky to give a little bit of shade. She grabbed onto her necklace and lightly traced the familiar outlines of the two charms between her fingertips. She looked down at the charms, one a sun, and the other was a cloud. She's had the necklace since before she could remember. It was a gift from her father whom she couldn't remember. Her mother said he had given it to her on her first birthday and Kira hadn't taken it off since. Kira never asked many questions about her father since it seemed like a sensitive subject to talk about around her mom, so she just let it be. She never had been a curious person to begin with; she just took things for what they were and didn't ask questions.

She finished her piece of bread just as she arrived to a clearing with two boys her age and an older looking man standing in the middle of it. Kira quietly strolled up to the group and gave a small wave.

"It's about time you showed up! We've been waiting at least thirty minutes for your lazy butt!" Screamed one of the boys with short, spiky brown hair, his dark eyes burning with fury. "We always waste so much time waiting on you! That's valuable time we'll never get back, time we could've used to train!"

"Oh yeah, well then how come you're wasting 'valuable time' by yelling at me? That's also time you'll never get back!" Kira smugly replied back.

"You know what I mean! Stop being such a smart-ass for once in your life!" The boy yelled.

"Hey, Taro, maybe you shouldn't be so harsh on Kira. I mean I'm sure she has a good reason for being late, right, Kira-chan?" Said the other boy very timidly, his sandy blonde, black tipped hair falling into his eyes.

Kira let out a small chuckle and put her arms behind her head, grinning sheepishly, "Eh, not really. I just over-slept again is all."

"Are you kidding me? You're late again because you over-slept!" Taro exploded, "Is eight o'clock really such a hard time to make? Most of the other teams are already up and training by seven thirty!"

Kira opened one eye to look at the furious boy. "Yeah sorry dude, I have a very strict no waking up until at least nine o'clock policy. Unfortunately for me, my mom doesn't seem to agree with this policy so I'm here at eight thirty." Kira said letting out a bored yawn.

"I don't care about your stupid policy! You need to get here earlier so that we can start training on time! You're affecting the whole team by being late!" Taro yelled.

The blonde boy spoke up nervously, "Guys, can we please stop yelling at each other and get along?"

Taro slightly turned to the boy, "But don't you see, Naoko? If we don't yell at her then she'll always show up late and we'll always have to suffer from it. Now does that sound okay to you?"

"No I guess not, but can't you guys be at least a little nicer about it?" Naoko muttered, turning his pale blue eyes to the ground.

"Not with her around! I swear, Kira you drive me up the wall sometimes!" Taro yelled. "I mean you're never on time, you're never any help, you always do nothing, and you hardly ever pay attention when people are talking to you!"

"Did you say something, Taro?" Kira asked looking at Taro with a bored look.

"Ugh! See, Naoko, this is what I'm talking about! It's like she thinks she can do whatever she wants because she's the Kazekage's precious little niece!" Taro said crossing his arms in frustration.

Kira immediately glared at Taro, "What did you say, Tanaka?"

Taro turned and smirked at Kira, "You heard me. What, did I hit a soft spot? 'Uncle Gaara, Taro was being mean to me again today!'" Taro said imitating Kira.

"Take that back!" Kira yelled at Taro furiously.

"Or what? What are you gonna do about it huh!" Taro shouted in Kira's face.

"I'll wipe that smug little smile off your face you-!"

"Thirty two." Interrupted the older man who had been silently standing there, his dark red hair pulled back in a low ponytail.

Kira and Taro who were now inches from each others faces immediately whipped their heads around to look at the man.

Taro's face instantly turned from fury to fear. "Oh no." He barely whispered.

The man looked at them again, "Thirty two minutes."

Taro quickly straightened up and put an arm to scratch his head. "Haha, what do you mean, Akeno-sensei?" He asked, laughing nervously, even though he already knew the answer.

Akeno narrowed his eyes and looked straight at Kira, "You were late by exactly thirty two minutes, do you know what that means?"

"That I get off with a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again?" She asked hopefully.

"Uh-uh, wanna try again?" Akeno asked. Kira just looked at him with disbelief in her eyes. "No? Well I guess I'll just have to tell you. I want you to do laps around the field over there." He said pointing to a field with short scrubby grass about a hundred yards long and fifty wide.

Kira stared at him in shock before asking, "Um, okay. How many should I do?"

"Thirty two-," He stated.

Kira quickly sighed in relief, "Oh well thirty two isn't so bad I guess."

"Hundred." Akeno finished.

"What? Come on, Akeno-sensei, I know you hate it when I'm late but cut me some slack, I mean that is a little harsh, even for you." Kira stated furrowing her eyebrows.

"I'm being serious, Kira. Give me thirty two hundred laps." Akeno said again, unblinking.

Kira this time looked at her sensei in fury and crossed her arms. "Well I'm not doing it! I have a strict no dying policy and if I do those laps I will most certainly be breaking that policy! Sorry, sensei, but I'm not doing it and there's nothing you can do to make me!"

Akeno looked at Kira with a terrifying look in his dark eyes. "Are you sure about that? Do you really want to find out what'll happen if you don't do it?"

"O-on second thought I did eat a big dinner last night and I should probably work it off." Kira quickly changed her mind.

"Bah ha ha ha ha!" Taro busted out laughing. "That's what you get, Kira! Maybe that'll teach you to show up on time!" He pointed his finger at Kira mockingly and continued to laugh.

"Why I oughtta-!" Kira said taking a step towards Taro.

"Eh hem." Akeno cleared his throat looking at Kira.

Kira immediately took off running towards the field and looked back over her shoulder to glare at Taro.

"Man, Akeno-sensei, you really had me worried for a second. I thought you were about to have all of us doing push ups or something! Whew that's a relief!" Taro said wiping imaginary sweat off his fore head.

"I wasn't finished yet, Taro. You and Kira just spent the last ten minutes arguing with each other. You'd think after five months of being on the same team you two would get along better. I swear you two don't even know the definition of teamwork! So I think it might be a good idea to have some nice teammate bonding, don't you think so?" Akeno said smiling evilly.

Taro stared at Akeno with his mouth agape. "But, Akeno-sensei, that's not fair at all! I mean she's the one that was late!"

"I don't want to hear it, Taro. Now go join Kira in her laps before I add on another hundred!"

"Fine." Taro mumbled before he ran off after Kira, grumbling under his breath.

"Right. Okay, Naoko, let's have some sparring training while you're teammates are taking their laps," Akeno said smiling at the blonde boy.

"Y-yes, Akeno-sensei," Naoko said turning to his sensei, trying to figure out whether he should be scared of him or not.

Kira looked over her shoulder and was surprised to see Taro running up to her and falling in beside her.

"Ha! What happened to 'this is what you get, Kira!' seems like someone is getting a taste of his own medicine!" Kira said smugly.

"Yeah, yeah, let's just get this over with." Taro muttered.

"Hm, whatever." Kira shrugged and looked straight ahead. _One lap down, only thirty one hundred and ninety nine to go _she thought not looking forward to the rest of their laps.

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><p>"Well done guys!" Akeno said beaming down at his students who were all collapsed on the ground except for Naoko. "Even though I only stopped you guys at three hundred and fifty two, I think you get the idea." Taro and Kira just glared at their sensei and continued to lie on the ground panting. "Now, now, that's not a very nice way to look at your sensei!" Akeno chuckled.<p>

The sun was just beginning to set as the night time approached the village, turning the sky a deep golden color. The village always looked the prettiest during a sun set. The four ninjas' shadows were cast long across the thin layer of sand that covered the ground.

"Okay who's up for some barbeque?" Akeno asked lightening the subject. "We can talk about what we need to work on in the next couple days of training. Maybe we can even try and get a C rank mission soon." He said scratching his chin as he looked up to the sky.

Taro perked up his head to the mention of barbeque and a giant grin spread across his face. "Akeno-sensei, I hate it when you're mad at us, but when you're not, you really can be pretty cool you know."

Naoko made a small smile as well and silently nodded his head in agreement.

Kira sighed and looked at her teammates and sensei. She hated to admit it but she was actually starting to like hanging around them, even though they were a pain.

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><p><strong>REVIEW! :)<strong>


	2. Talks About Scars and Stars

**Hey everyone! here's chapter 2 hope you like it! I'm just gonna throw a few extra exclamation points in here to make it more exciting! :D okay I'm satisfied.**

**I do not own naruto, yada yada yada bla bla okay we get the point.**

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><p>"Thanks, Akeno-sensei!" All three genin graciously thanked their sensei.<p>

The four of them sat at one of the booths in the small diner. It had grown into a sort of tradition over the past couple of months to come here after a long day of training, the team made sure to do it at least once a week, if not more.

"It's no problem, I'm glad to do it." Akeno replied smiling.

Taro leaned back in his booth next to Kira and laced his fingers behind his head. "Man, that's some good eating! I couldn't eat any more even if I wanted to."

Akeno smiled at his foolish student, _with as much as you've eaten, I'm not surprised. _In front of Taro lay four empty plates stacked together, not even a crumb was left remaining on any of the plates. It was as if they hadn't had anything on them to begin with. "How was it, Naoko?" Akeno asked looking over at Naoko who sat beside him.

Naoko looked up at his sensei, smiling with his eyes, "It was very delicious, thank you." The young boy pulled at his dark long sleeved shirt and quietly adjusted the cloth he had wrapped around his thin shoulders and neck.

Akeno looked now at Kira who sat across from him. She held her head in her palm, with her elbow resting on the light wooden table. Her other hand was twirling the straw in her drink around, clinking the ice cubes together. Her green gaze was fixed on something in the distance, as if she was in a trance. Akeno could tell from the way she gazed across the table that her mind was on something else, daydreaming as usual.

It was interesting and at the same time very strange, through out the entire meal, Taro and Kira had yet to argue. Not even the tiniest jab had left either one's mouth. _Hm, I guess making them run together really paid off. _Akeno smiled to himself, _finally some nice team bonding without any bickering. _If there was anything he hated most, it was the two of them and their constant arguing. Well, that and whenever someone showed up late.

Taro stretched his arms above his head and let out a giant yawn. He let his arms fall down to his side, but to everyone's despair, one of his arms happened to land around Kira's shoulder. Taro immediately pulled his arm back but it was too late. Kira was already looking at the boy, flames leaping from her eyes.

"Did you just try and pull a move on me?"

Taro scooted back and quickly put his hands in front of him in defense. "N-no, you see, that's not what happened at all! I was just-."

Kira cut him off looking at him with a death glare. "I thought I'd already told you that I have a strict no-touching policy." She gritted her teeth.

Taro evened his gaze and stuck his face in hers. "So what if my arm accidentally touched you? It was only your shoulder anyways, and as I said it was an accident! You think I would ever pull a move on an ugly hag like you anyways?"

"Oh crap." Naoko whispered under his breath, looking down at his hands that lay in his lap.

Kira looked sharply at the boy and steam fumed from her nostrils. "What did you call me?"

"You heard me!"

"Well at least I'm not a spineless rat!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!" Kira and Taro's foreheads were now pressed together, screaming in the other ones face.

Akeno gave a defeated sigh and hung his head low. _So much for nice team bonding. _

"Excuse me sir."

Akeno looked up to see the waitress standing nervously beside their table, shooting glances at the bickering students, who were now getting a few more uncomfortable stares. "Yes, how can I help you?"

The waitress turned her attention back to the red-headed man and gingerly handed him a bill. "Here's your bill sir." She gave him a small smile and turned on her heel to go, giving one last glance over her shoulder at Taro and Kira.

Akeno opened the check book and began reading down the list of items. _Dang these kids sure eat a lot; it's as if the list doesn't end! _His eyes grazed over the rest of the check until they reached the end. He felt his eyes bulge out of their sockets and he skimmed over the check again checking the totals. He sadly sighed to himself and reached into his back pocket for his nearly empty wallet. He opened the pockets and reluctantly pulled out the rest of his money, placing it safely in the bills folds. _I really can't continue treating them to barbeque this often, at least not with the pay from D-rank missions. _

He looked back at Kira and Taro, noticing that things had cooled off a bit. The two now both sat with their arms crossed and backs facing the other. "Okay guys let's get going, it's getting late." Akeno quickly got up out of his booth and waited for the others to follow him out the door.

The team stood waiting outside the restaurant for Taro who of course had decided he needed to use the bathroom last second. Naoko stood with his hands folded behind his back and silently gazed up at the sky. The black night sky hung over the village like a veil and was speckled with an immense number of stars lightly dusted over it. The patterns of stars wrapped and swirled around each other, creating a mosaic of brilliant streaks. A chilly wind swept through the streets and kicked up bits of sand on its way through, before letting the sand fall gently back to the earth. Kira sat on the ground, her back against the diner wall with her knees pulled to her chest and one arm slung lazily over her knee. She held the charms of her necklace in her fingertips and marveled at the thinly etched patterns hidden in each charm. Her dark black bangs hung in her face and she gently tucked a stray lock that had escaped from her ponytail, behind one ear. Their sensei was leaning on the wall and had his hands stuffed in his pant pockets. The moonlight struck his face and shone brightly on a deep scar that ran across the upper left side of his nose and down diagonally to his lower right cheek. He looked up across the street and began to whistle a soft tune.

"Oh man! Boy that felt good, I've been holding that in since five!" Taro exclaimed barging out of the diner door. He smiled to himself and threw his arms over his head, letting them rest on his spiky brown hair. Taro opened one eye to look over at his sensei and ran his eyes over the scar that cut through Akeno's face. "Hey, sensei, so when do we get to hear the real story behind that gnarly scar you got?"

Akeno stopped his whistling to look at the young shinobi, "Oh this?" He pointed questioningly at the scar across his nose.

"Yeah, I mean we've been a team for awhile now, can't we hear the story behind it? And I mean the real story, not some phony one you just make up." Taro stuffed his hands in his tan short pockets.

Naoko looked down at Akeno as well, obviously curious for his answer.

Akeno let a small smile pull at his lips and ran a hand down his red hair pulled back in a low pony. He looked up to the tops of the various stone buildings across the street and seemed to be pondering at his own answer. "So you really wanna know where I got this scar, huh? Are you sure? You might not like the answer."

"Come on Akeno-sensei, just tell us already. It's not like we're gonna start hating you or anything, you can trust us." Taro said pleadingly.

Akeno scratched at his chin and thought for a minute longer. "Okay, I guess you guys are ready to know." He turned to look at Taro and Naoko who had gathered around, while Kira remained in her position on the ground. "Well if you really want to know then I might as well start from the very beginning." He paused for a second to build up the suspense. He put a thumb to the inside arch of his left eyebrow and ran the finger down the length of the scar to his right lower jaw. "I got this when I was just about your age, in fact it was a little after I was made a chunnin, and it was my first B-rank mission as a newly fledged chunnin. I was on a team with three other ninja and our mission was to retrieve a secret document."

"Where'd you have to get the document from?" Taro asked, completely engulfed in the story.

"Just hold on, Taro, you need to have patience, I was just about to say that. Now, this document was located in the Water Country, in one of the most dangerous parts of the country. It was infested with missing nin, and gangs as well. The most notorious gang was located there, and that is where our document was hidden, in that gang's hide out. The head honcho of this gang was one of the wealthiest men alive, Gato. We were able to infiltrate the hide out but when we got there-."

"Bullshit." Kira said cutting him off, leaning her head back against the diner side.

Taro looked at the black haired girl annoyingly before snapping at her, "Kira, stop interrupting! You're ruining the story, he was about to get to the best part!"

Kira let out a small snort, "Didn't you hear him? Come on, I know you were never the brightest kid at the academy but I didn't think even you were that brainless."

"Hey who are you calling brainless!" Taro yelled furiously.

Kira evened her gaze with the spiky haired boy, a smug look coming across her face. "Just shut up and listen okay? Now he said that Gato was the man he had to steal the document from right?"

Taro looked at Kira stupidly, "Yeah, what's your point?"

"Well if you had paid attention in class then maybe you'd remember that Gato was a corrupt business man who used ninjas to bully people around and gain control over small countries. So if he was only a business man, why would he have a secret scroll that any ninja would need to steal?" Kira explained.

"Yeah, so. Just because he was in the business industry doesn't mean he wouldn't have any valuable documents." Taro retorted.

"That's true, except for the fact that he was killed about twenty years ago by Zabuza Momochi in the Land of Waves. Akeno-sensei can't be any older than maybe twenty five at best. This means that if his story were true that he'd of been about five years old, and he clearly claimed that he got his scar when he was around our age. Even if this wasn't true, it still means that he would've been only five when he was a chunnin, which we know isn't possible." Kira said knowingly.

"Very good, Kira, it's good to know you paid attention during your history lectures at the academy." Akeno stated laughing.

"Nah, that just happened to be one of the lectures I wasn't asleep during." Kira shrugged from her seat on the floor.

"Well anyways, it seems that you caught my bluff again."

Taro looked at Akeno in disbelief. "You mean that was just another one of your made-up stories? Ugh, come on Akeno-sensei, when are you going to tell us the real story behind that scar? You said you would this time!"

Akeno looked at the spiky haired boy and laughed to himself, "A ninja has got to see through deception. Who knows when I'll tell you the real story. Maybe tomorrow, maybe in a week, or maybe never."

"Aw, sensei! That's not fair! You know you'll have to tell us eventually. Soon you'll run out of ideas, and then the real story with slip through." Taro replied to his sensei, letting out a huff of frustration.

"Well until then I guess it'll just stay a mystery." Akeno said back to his students chuckling. "Anyways I meant to tell you over dinner but I was able to get us a C-rank mission for tomorrow."

Taro stared up at their sensei in excitement. "Alright! Now you're talking! I mean it's not like there's anything wrong with D-rank missions, but it's about time we got our first C-rank."

"Yes well I want all three of you to meet at me at the training grounds at seven tomorrow morning so I can give you all the details for the mission and we can get started on it bright and early."

Kira's emerald eyes widen at this comment, "Hold up, did you say seven? As in seven in the morning? Was no one listening to me early about my sleeping policy? Sorry, sensei, but I think I'm just gonna sit this one out. I mean you guys won't need me during the mission anyways. Besides, this mission sounds like it's gonna be a pain and a lot of work. So I'll just see you guys when you get back from it I guess."

"Absolutely not, Kira. There's no way you're getting out of this mission. Why do you think they put you genin on three men squads? It's to develop teamwork and make your team stronger together. It's to get you and your teammates familiar with each other and each other's different skills. You won't be able to develop this teamwork unless the team goes on different missions together. Now do you understand why you need to come on this mission?" Akeno said looking at Kira.

Kira looked back up at her sensei thoughtfully. "Well you said that the teams are supposed to be made of three men squads, right? That's perfect, I figured it out!"

Akeno smiled at his student. "Good, Kira, I'm glad you finally understand the importance of the team."

"No not that, I mean I figured it out! You are going on the mission too right? Well it's perfect, if I don't go then it'll still be a three man squad like you were talking about. If I go then it'll be a four man squad and that won't work, so you'll just have to go for me. Problem solved!" Kira decided beaming.

Akeno just stared down at the young kunochi, his eye twitching a bit. "Did you seriously not get anything I just said?" Akeno asked sighing. "Kira, I'm not going to fight with you on this anymore. You need to be at the training grounds at seven tomorrow morning or I'll let the Kazekage know about it." Akeno threatened.

Kira lazily shrugged her shoulders, not seeming to care about the threat. "Fine, I'll try and get there at seven, since you seem so persistent about it, even though it'll be a drag."

Akeno sighed in relief, "Good, I'll be on my way now and I'll see you all tomorrow morning! And don't be late!" With that he gave a small wave goodbye and began walking down the sandy road towards his own apartment on the other side of the village.

Taro, Naoko, and Kira all waved back at their sensei before turning in the opposite direction towards their own homes.

Kira stretched her arms over her head and let out a big yawn. "Gosh, I'm tired. Those laps we did earlier really took it outta me."

"Yeah, you said it. Let's not do that again." Taro grinned at Kira. "Speaking of which, hey, Naoko, what did you and sensei do while Kira and I were running our brains out? I thought I saw you guys sparring a bit?"

Naoko looked up at the spiky haired boy and quietly brushed his black-tipped bangs away from his eyes. "Yeah, we were just sparring some. He was trying to help me with my taijutsu."

"That's great Naoko! I'm glad you're getting some more practice, hopefully you'll be able to put that training to use during tomorrow's mission." Taro said optimistically.

The blonde boy made a small smile and nodded. "Yes, we'll just have to all do our best."

The three genin stopped in front of a stone house with one light on in the upstairs. "Well this is my stop, you guys." Taro said smiling at his teammates.

Naoko looked up at the room that was lit up, "Is your brother home from his mission?"

"Nah, it's just my older sister Ayane, she just got home from her latest mission this morning. Maiko and Rikuto are still on their missions though." Taro said also looking up at the house.

"Oh okay, I didn't realize Maiko had a mission as well, I thought it was only Rikuto." Naoko said looking at Taro.

"Yeah, well Maiko was assigned one yesterday and she left last night again. Rikuto should get back any day though, his mission was only supposed to last about a week, but it's already been two weeks." Taro said a little uneasy, "But he should be fine."

"Okay well tell Ayane I said hi then." Naoko said smiling at Taro. "And don't worry, Rikuto will get home soon, I know it."

"Yeah, I'm hoping so. Well I really should go inside and get some shut eye, we got a big day tomorrow and you won't catch me lagging behind you two!" Taro waved goodbye grinning and quickly disappeared into the stone house.

Naoko and Kira continued on their way home. All three of the genin's homes were on the way from the barbeque diner, so they all naturally walked with each other to their houses. One streetlight flickered in the night time and a slight breeze blew through Kira's black ponytail. The two students walked side by side in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the stillness of the village at night.

Naoko broke the silence after a little bit. "Isn't the night beautiful? It makes me almost wish the sun wouldn't come up, so I can stay here and look at the stars all night." He marveled at the sky before continuing with a sigh. "I realize though that if the sun never came up, and the stars were always shining over head, that they wouldn't be nearly as beautiful."

Kira looked curiously at the blonde boy before looking up at the starry sky. "And why's that?"

Naoko joined Kira and looked up at the sky as well. "If the stars were always showing in the sky, then they wouldn't be nearly as special as they are now. When you see something so beautiful all the time, it takes away the beauty because you take its beauty for granted. During the day we forget just how beautiful and brilliant the stars really are, but then during the night, we get to see them again and are reminded of their brilliance."

Kira smiled to herself and continued to marvel at the sky. "I guess you're right, Naoko."

Naoko turned and looked at the black-haired kunochi. "Kira, I know you and Taro don't really get along and you think he's the most annoying person in the world, but you got to know that he only acts that way because he respects you, and he sees you as his biggest rival."

Kira looked into Naoko's pale blue eyes curiously. "Really, are you sure? You must be thinking of the wrong Taro. He hates my guts, there's no way that he respects me even the tiniest bit."

Naoko smiled a little, "No trust me, I can see it. He wants to earn your respect and he desperately doesn't want to lose to you. I think you two just need to get along a little better and you need to get to understand one another." Kira turned and looked at Naoko as the two ninja stopped in front of a gate with the Miyake family crest painted on the front. "Well this is where I leave you." Naoko smiled kindly at the girl and bowed his head slightly "Goodnight, Kira-chan."

Kira smiled back at the boy, "Goodnight, Naoko." She turned and continued down the sandy path towards her own home. She found herself thinking deeply about what Naoko had told her and smiled a bit to herself, thinking of her two young teammates. The walk from Naoko's home to hers was a very short one and she soon arrived at her small house. All the lights were turned out and Kira made sure to be very quiet about entering the front door. She lightly stepped on the wooden floorboards, knowing exactly which ones would creak if too much weight was put on them. She peeked around the doorway to her mother's room and saw her peacefully asleep in her own bed. Kira sadly realized that it had been one of the first nights in a while that her mother had actually been home for dinner, and she had missed it. Her mother was constantly traveling between her village and their ally village, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. She was a sort of messenger and peacekeeper between the two villages and she had always been making the trips since before Kira was even born. The trips never were too big of an issue, and Kira had even been able to accompany her on a couple of the trips, but as Kira had gotten older she had gained more responsibilities in the village. She realized that she rarely saw her mother anymore. Her mother's sleeping figure looked so peaceful lying on the bed, her blonde hair was down out of the pigtails and spread out messily to frame her face. Her shallow breathing rang out through the silent house.

"Good night mom, I love you." Kira quietly whispered before heading up the stairs and into her own room.

She slipped on her night shorts and tank top and took off her ninja head band, laying it on her desk. She took down her hair and fingered through it to get the loose knots out. She walked over to her drapes and was about to close them when she looked outside and noticed to stars shining in the sky. She looked up at them twinkling down at her and remembered what Naoko had said about the stars beauty being taken for granted. She left the drapes open for the night and let the starlight shine in through the window. Across the room she crawled into her own bed and let the creatures of the night drag her into a deep slumber.

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><p><strong>Let me know what you think, and please give me feedback on stuff to fix, stuff that didn't make sense, also I suck at grammar so a few tips on that is always appreciated! Let me know your opinions ect. and the only way for me to find out your opinions is if you press the little box below this that says the magic word re, wait for it, view! review please! because I can't read minds, although that is a skill which would be quite nifty... okay bye!<strong>


	3. A Lost Man and a Poorly Drawn Map

**Hey everyone! Here's chapter 3! Sorry I didn't update for so long, exams suck... end of story... But hopefully now with summer here, there will actually be more time to get to work on this story! Enjoy!**

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><p>Suna was a strange place in the morning, the suns rising caused the village to glow with vibrant shades of bright red and orange. Long shadows were cast across the thin layer of sand that surrounded the entire village floors. Many villagers would rise early to catch a glimpse of this mysterious beauty. The sun rise could come and go within a few minutes, and in those few minutes, Suna was a whole different place.<p>

Along with the sun rise there were many aspects of the morning in Suna that would appear strange. Whether it was the early morning birds that sung sweet melodies for all to hear, or the way the breeze whistled through the streets and stirred up sand, creating pictures in the air.

Among these many things found in the morning, one of the strangest was a black haired girl walking down the streets. It would seem like a typically normal thing to see in the morning, except this was no ordinary girl. This was Kira Sabaku, and to see her walking down the streets at six-thirty in the morning was definitely not normal.

Kira trudged down the lonely street and dragged her sandaled feet in the sand, leaving behind a trail of indented sand. Her arms dangled in front of her and she was hunched over with her head looking straight down. The large closed fan strapped across her back was accompanied with a small drawstring pack slung around her head. At first glance, it would appear that the girl was sleep walking, but a small movement of her hand to bring a piece of bread to her mouth, indicated otherwise.

"Good morning!"

Kira turned sleepily to an old man standing next to his house holding a newspaper.

The man smiled at Kira while folding the newspaper up, "Beautiful morning isn't it."

Kira turned back to look in front of her before trudging along again and muttered over her shoulder, "There's nothing beautiful about the morning."

The man continued smiling and turned back to his house laughing to himself, "Kids these days."

Kira arrived at the training grounds where her teammates were already waiting for her and gave them a sleepy look.

Taro spun around and pointed an accusing finger at the young kunochi, "You're late!"

"Actually she isn't, Taro." Akeno said surprisingly to the boy checking the time. "Wow, Kira, this is the first time in a while you're here on time. Couldn't sleep any longer?"

Kira let out a giant yawn and stretched her arms over her head. She looked at the red-headed shinobi lazily and muttered, "Yeah, yeah. It's a miracle. I still don't understand why we have to be here this early anyways. Now if you don't mind I'm going to go try and get back some sleep I'm missing because of this." She sluggishly walked over to a lone post a few feet away from the group and slid to the ground, letting her head rest against the hard wood. She closed her eyes and stretched her long legs out in front of her.

"Tch, typical." Taro retorted. He folded his tanned arms over a dark blue vest that he wore loosely open over a t-shirt. The brown t-shirts sleeves poked out from the sides of the vest and a small yellow lightning bolt ran diagonally across the front. There was a patterned ring tattooed around his right upper arm that skimmed the bottom of the t-shirt sleeve. The hood of the blue vest was folded behind the boys head and was covered by a long sword that was strapped to his back. One edge of the sword was jagged with a needle sharp point at the end, while the other edge of the sword was sharp enough to slice through practically anything.

Naoko who stood beside Taro quietly spoke up, addressing his sensei, "So what's the mission you got us, sensei?"

"Well as your first C-rank mission, I was able to get us an escort mission."

Taro immediately perked his head up and looked ecstatically at his sensei. "Yahoo! Now that's what I call a mission! Who's the escort? Is it a king? Or a feudal lord? Oh wait don't tell me, it's definitely a beautiful princess right? Oh boy, I knew it! It's gotta be a princess!"

"Actually they should be here any moment, so you'll just have to wait and see until then."

Taro's grin reached from ear to ear as he began to picture the beautiful princess in his mind. "Aw, shucks, Akeno-sensei, you're only not telling us because you know I'm right about it being a princess."

Kira snorted at her spiky haired teammate before nodding off to a shallow sleep.

"Well, I'm sure whoever it is it'll still be great experience for all of us." Naoko said calmly. He looked up to the sky and spotted a pair of small birds soaring over head, chasing each other around the blue depths.

Kira opened one eye sleepily to look over across the training grounds where a tall young man stood walking around in circles. The young man ran a hand through messy black hair that stuck up every which way while he looked down at a crumpled piece of paper. The man was muttering under his breath and would occasionally look up at his surroundings before burrowing his face back in the piece of paper.

"Hey do you need any help or anything?"

The young man jumped at Akeno's voice and turned around to look at the group curiously. He looked back down at the piece of paper and then back up at the group. He looked between the two a few times before quickly walking up to the group. "Um, yeah, can you tell me how to get over here?" He handed the piece of paper, which looked to be a poorly drawn map, over to Akeno and pointed a finger at a spot on the map.

Akeno puzzled over the confusing jumble of lines, arrows, and squares, and reached a hand up to scratch his head. "You want to get here right?" Akeno pointed down at what looked to be a scribbled blob in the center of the map.

The young man grazed his pale green eyes over the tattered map before nodding. "Yeah, um, some old lady I met on the street was giving me directions but they were way too confusing so she drew this out for me. I was grateful at the time, but I think this thing's just messing me up even more."

Akeno furrowed his brow and looked closely back at the map. "What does it say here in the middle?" He pointed to the blob in the middle that the man was apparently trying to get to.

"Oh, sorry, I should've just told you where I wanted to go to begin with. I'm, um, supposed to meet a team of ninja at the second training grounds?"

A smile appeared on the red-haired shinobi's face and he looked up at the young man. "Your name wouldn't happen to be Daishiro, would it?"

The man dumbly stared at the ninja, "H-how did you know?" He then looked around the clearing and then hit his forehead with his palm. "Oh, so you're the team I'm supposed to be meeting."

Akeno nodded his head, "Yes, this is the second training grounds and we are going to be your escorts to the Land of Rice Patties."

"Oh, wow, I feel dumb. I'm sorry; from a distance you all looked a little young to be ninja." He motioned to the genin lingering to the side.

"Ha, we may look young, but trust me; you're looking at the Sand Village's top ninja!" Taro exclaimed jabbing a thumb to in his direction.

"No, don't get me wrong, I'm sure you are all great ninja. Your Kazekage just told me that the team escorting me consisted of one jonin and three genin that were around thirteen years of age. I only saw one older man and two kids that looked to be about eleven."

Taro whipped his head around at the man and glared. "What did you say? I could flatten you with one swing of this sword." Taro threatened and grabbed the sword's handle.

"I didn't mean it that way! I'm sorry I think it was only from a distance you looked so young!" Daishiro quickly brought his hands in front of himself and apologized.

"Taro! You never threaten the escort! Our mission is to protect him, not chop him to bits!" Akeno grabbed Taro in a headlock and smiled apologetically at Daishiro. "I'm sorry; he just has a short temper is all. I'll make sure to keep him in line from now on."

"S-sen-sei?" Taro managed to get out.

"Yeah, Taro?"

"I c-can't b-breathe!"

"Whoops!" Akeno immediately unleashed Taro who was now bright red in the face and the boy went to the side to cough up air. "Sorry about that. Here let me introduce everyone, my name is Akeno Himura, and I am the jonin in charge of team four."

Taro straightened up, all signs of previously being strangled gone, and he quickly stood beside his sensei. "My name's Taro Tanaka and I'm the greatest shinobi this village has ever seen!" He rested his arms behind his head and grinned smugly.

Naoko looked up at Daishiro and quickly bowed his head, his black tipped, blonde bangs falling in his eyes. "Hi, my name is Naoko Minami, pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Nice to meet you all." Daishiro smiled in return. "My name's Daishiro." He looked uncertainly at the ninja in front of him. "Um, sorry, but the report said there would be one jonin and three genin, I only see two genin." He looked around the group, searching for the last member.

Akeno smiled sheepishly after noticing Kira was not with them. "Oh the last genin is Kira; she should be around here somewhere. Kira!" He called loudly for the black-haired girl. The only response he got in return was a small snore. He looked over to the lone post and spotted Kira's feet sticking out from the other side. "If you would excuse me for just a moment." Akeno chuckled, holding up a finger as he silently snuck over to where Kira was laying, fast asleep. The young kunochi's black bangs hung messily in her face and were periodically brushed away by her even breathing. Akeno smiled to himself. _Boy, is she going to regret falling asleep again in my presence. _He lowered his head down and positioned his face inches away from the sleeping girl's ear. He cupped a hand around his mouth and let in a deep breath. "KIRA!"

Kira jumped up about two feet in the air and landed back on the ground with a thunk. She leaned on her palms behind her back and gave her sensei a death glare. "I thought we had an understanding that I have a no waking policy?" She huffed her bangs out of her face.

The red-headed shinobi smiled down at his student and shrugged his shoulders innocently. "I guess I forgot about that one."

"Liar." Kira shot back.

"Well any who, you might want to get up and introduce yourself to our escort." He nodded towards Daishiro, who was looking over in puzzlement.

Kira let out a small groan and pushed herself up off the ground. She let out a giant yawn and brushed off some of the sand that had collected over her dark green dress. With a heaving sigh, she trudged over to the group and looked up at the young man quizzically. "You're the one we're escorting?"

"Yep, my name's Daishiro, nice to meet you."

Kira squinted her eyes together and studied the man's face for a moment before letting out a small snort. "You don't look helpless enough to need an escort, that scar above your eye would indicate otherwise." She indicated to the barely visible scar above his left eyebrow. "Looks like it was from a sword right? Perhaps from a little fight you had?" Probably from about three years ago from the looks of it."

Daishiro looked down at the girl and let out a nervous chuckle and threw an arm up to rub his neck. "Oh no, this was from a sickle when I was fourteen. My dad and I were in the fields cutting down some grass to prepare for the year's harvest."

"Hm, I guess that could be another way you'd get a scar like that. So if I'm not mistaken then you're around seventeen?"

"Yeah, actually I just turned seventeen about a month ago." Daishiro smiled.

Kira looked away a little bored. "Eh, whatever."

"Eck hem, Kira didn't you forget to do something before you started interrogating Daishiro?" Akeno said a little impatiently.

Kira looked up at her sensei questioningly and then with realization lazily turned back around to Daishiro. "Oh yeah, my name's Kira Sabuku." She said stifling a yawn in between.

"Well that's everyone." Akeno said letting out a small laugh. "Now if you wouldn't mind explaining the situation to us?"

Daishiro looked at the group and brushed his black locks out of his face. "Well as you might have been able to figure out by now, I'm a farmer from the Land of Rice Patties, and about two weeks ago my father and I traveled here looking to sell some of our crops. My father headed back already about a week ago to continue with the harvest. He had me stay behind and sell the rest of what we brought before I came back as well. But, he wanted to be certain I made it back safely, so he paid for an escort mission." He let out a small chuckle, "You know how fathers can be sometimes."

"I see, well now that we know you're story we should probably get going, we don't want to waste too much time." Akeno walked up to the post and grabbed a small backpack that leaned against it. "If we keep a steady walking pace and make few stops then we should arrive in about two days at best."

"Whoa, hold up. Two days?" Taro looked dumbfounded at his sensei. "And that's just on the way there? Oh man, I didn't pack enough for that!"

"It's okay, Taro, I brought some extra snacks if you need some." Naoko offered.

"And we can always stop along the way if we need anything." Akeno added in.

"Whatever, can we just get going now? The sooner we get there the sooner I can get some sleep." Kira added a bit annoyed.

"Seriously, Kira, is that all you can think of?"

"No, I happen to think of plenty of other stuff too."

"Like what?"

"Like pummeling you into the ground, Taro!"

"Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try!"

"Tch, I wouldn't waste my energy on a mere loser like you, I could take you with my eyes closed."

"Yeah, well let's see you try it Sabaku, right here, right now!" Taro grabbed his sword and pulled it free of its strap. He whirled it around and brought it down on Kira. The sword came down on Kira's shoulder and a deafening crack was sounded. In the blink of an eye, Kira closed fan was across her back, blocking it from the jagged swords blade. Taro lifted his sword back up and pulled it back, this time swinging low for Kira's legs while Kira took her fan and stabbed it into the ground. She used the fan as leverage to pick her feet up, and Taro's sword was once again blocked by the fan's metal cover. Kira smirked and picked up the fan once her feet had touched the ground. She took the large fan and rammed it towards Taro's chest while at the same time Taro had his sword swinging, aimed for Kira's neck.

A flash of red intervened and when the genin both looked up, they saw Akeno with an arm wrapped tightly around the closed fan, and the metal back of his gloves stopping the jagged sword's motion. "Are you guys kidding me? What the hell do you two think you're doing!" He gave Taro and Kira each a stern look. "I am fed up with your constant bickering and this rivalry you got. For crying out loud, you two are a team! Instead of trying to kill each other, why don't you get along and start acting like teammates." He loosened his grip on the fan and roughly pushed the blade out of his way. Akeno shot each genin a disgusted look and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, you know the drill, this is the part where you start apologizing to me and each other."

Taro and Kira quickly mumbled an apology to Akeno under their breath. They then looked up at each other and immediately fixed their gazes back at the sandy ground, refusing to keep eye contact.

"I'm waiting." Akeno looked at the two expectantly. The two genin continued to stare hard at the ground stubbornly. "Geez, you guys are difficult. Okay, how about you start us off then Taro. Now apologize to Kira."

Taro whipped around to look annoyingly up at his sensei. "But why do I have to go first? She's the one who started it after all, I didn't even do anything wrong!"

"Yeah, about that, Taro, last time I checked it wasn't okay to swing your sword at your teammate and potentially try to kill them. That's what I would call doing something wrong." Akeno looked down at the spiky haired boy and nodded over in Kira's direction.

"Tch, fine." Taro crossed his arms and looked away from Kira. "I'm sorry I attacked you and acted like a jerk. There, you happy?"

Kira smirked at the boy and raised an eyebrow, "Anything else while you're at it? Don't you wanna apologize for being so annoying and basically sucking at being a ninja?"

Taro looked furiously at the black haired girl, a vein becoming visible on his temple. "What'd you say, Kira!"

"I said that you suck at being a –" Akeno's hand came down and thwacked Kira roughly over the head before she could finish. "Damn it, sensei, that really hurt." Kira rubbed her head gently and gave her sensei a nasty look.

"It's your turn to apologize, Kira."

Kira looked over at Taro and gave an annoyed sigh. "I'm sorry too for making fun of you and yelling at you all the time."

Akeno gave a pleased smile and turned around from the group. "Well, now that that's out of the way, let's get started on the trip, shall we?"

Daishiro looked at them in bewilderment and muttered over to Naoko who stood on his right side. "Did I miss something? Didn't those two just try and kill each other a second ago?"

"Yeah."

"And now everything's fine and dandy again, just like that."

Naoko shrugged nonchalantly, "It happens."

"Are they always like this?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Naoko replied back.

Daishiro gave an exhausted sigh and mumbled to himself, "Oh, man, what did I get myself into?"

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><p><strong>So pleaaaseee review! pretty please with a cherry on top? (or any other type of fruit, I'm personally not the biggest cherry fan so I completely understand if you would like me to bribe you with fruit other than cherries) Pretty please with an apple on top? Heehee apples are the bomb diggity... And I promise more is going to happen next chapter and from there this story should pick up more and get some good stuff going on! And once again REVIEW! (pretty please how about with a watermelon on top?)<strong>


	4. Princesses and Lots of Trees

**Yep I know this took forever to get out but here it is!**

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><p>"Are you sure you're not a princess? I mean maybe you need to disguise yourself as a dude because you're being hunted down or something along those lines." Taro looked suspiciously at Daishiro and tapped his chin.<p>

"No, Taro, I am most definitely not a princess." Daishiro clarified to the young ninja.

"Really? Our sensei told us that we would be body guarding a princess on this mission, and he never lies."

Kira sighed out loud from her walking position on the other side of Daishiro, "For the last time, Taro, he's not a princess. Akeno-sensei never said anything about body guarding a princess, you just assumed we were, now stop looking at Daishiro's chest, pervert."

Taro snapped his head up to look across at Kira. "I was just checking to see if he had boobs or not, you know, Daishiro, for being a princess you're pretty flat-chested."

Kira slapped her palm to her face in frustration. "For the love of the first he is not a princess! Seriously, Taro, stop staring."

Taro let out a disappointed huff and crossed his arms over his chest. "But I wanna meet a princess!" He cried in a childish voice. "I was expecting to escort a princess but no, instead I get stuck with some lame ass farmer, this sucks."

"He doesn't really mean any offense to you, Daishiro." Naoko spoke up quietly from the rear of the group.

"Don't worry, none taken." Daishiro gave a reassuring smile to the blonde boy.

"Do you at least know any princesses?" Taro queried looking up at the black haired farmer.

Daishiro scratched his chin in thought, trying to remember any princess encounters he might have had. "Nope, sorry kid none that I can think of."

"Well this is just fantastic! And who are you calling a kid? I'm only about three or so years younger than you are." Taro straightened up to try and appear taller.

"Sorry, just a force of habit; I always call kids younger than me kids." Daishiro smiled sheepishly.

"There you go again calling me a kid!"

"Put a lid on in, Taro, we still have a long way to go before we reach the Land of the Rice Patties, can we all just get along?" Akeno spoke from his position slightly ahead of the group. The scar-faced shinobi turned his head around slightly to look at the group with a pleading look in his eye.

"Yes, sorry, sensei." Naoko spoke up from the back.

"Its okay, Naoko that last comment was directed more towards your other teammates." He turned an expectant eye towards the rest of the group.

"Why are you looking at me? I've barely said a word so far, Akeno." Kira replied.

"I wasn't saying it was just you, I was also talking about Taro over there, and when did you start calling me Akeno? It's Akeno-sensei to you."

Kira rested her bare arms behind her head and let out a small grunt. "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Akeno-sensei." She said emphasizing the sensei part.

"Ugh, are we there yet?" Taro asked impatiently.

"Did you not just hear what I said? We still have quite a ways to go, I'd say probably another day at this pace." Akeno sighed.

Taro dropped his arms to his sides in defeat. The remainder of the group continued to walk in silence, only the whistling of the steady gust audible. The sand under there feet was becoming thinner and thinner with each step.

Taro lifted his head up and strained his eyes looking at something towards the horizon. "Hey, sensei, what's that thing up there?"

Akeno followed his students gaze and a small smile appeared on his lips. "Why that's a tree, Taro."

Taro's eyes grew big and his mouth hung agape, "But it's so big! Wow, so that's what a tree looks like. Hey, Naoko, Kira, look, it's a tree!"

The two students looked towards Taro's outstretched finger that was pointing at the tree in the distance. "Whoa" They said in unison.

"Last one there's a stinky farmer!" Taro yelled over his shoulder as he began sprinting towards the lone tree.

Kira and Naoko quickly followed suit and also ran for the tree. "Hey what's wrong with being a farmer?" Daishiro yelled to the students who were already out of earshot. "You know, I somewhat take offense to that. Why are they so excited about a stupid tree anyways? I mean it's like they haven't seen one before."

Akeno snickered beside the young farmer, "Actually, they haven't seen one before, and I believe this is the first time for all of them. This is their first real mission outside of the village before and if you didn't notice, there's not a tree in sight in the desert."

Daishiro looked dumbfounded at the older man, "You're kidding me right? That's crazy, to think you all live in such a place, I'd go crazy for sure."

The red-headed shinobi chuckled, "Yeah, I guess if you've never lived anywhere else, you get used to the desert."

By this point Akeno and Daishiro had reached the younger ninja who were all around the tree, staring up at it in awe. "Just wait until we get even further, this tree is tiny compared to some other trees we'll see when we go through the forests."

"You mean there are trees bigger than this one? That's crazy, this one's already about three times my height, and how can they even grow so tall!" Taro exclaimed to his sensei.

"Well I guess that's just the way they are, you should see the Leaf Village, that place is covered with them." Akeno explained to the young boy.

"What's the Leaf Village like, Akeno-sensei?"

"Let's see, how should I describe it, well, Naoko, it's actually a lot like our village in a way. The methods of teaching are similar and so is the government. You know how our village has a Kazekage, right?"

Naoko looked up at his sensei, "Of course, our Kazekage is Gaara-sama."

"Correct, now the Leaf Village, along with our village the Sand Village, is one of the five great nations. In each nation, there is a person who is granted the name Kage and is the leader of the village. We have the Kazekage and the Leaf Village has the Hokage. The person with the name Kage is the strongest ninja of the entire village."

Taro glanced over, pondering this last statement. "So you're saying that Gaara-sama is the strongest in our village? Wow, that's insane, remind me not to get on his bad side."

"So who's the Hokage of the Leaf Village?" Naoko asked.

"Oh, that would be Naruto Uzumaki, he and the Kazekage are actually very close, which is why our villages are in such good terms." Akeno answered.

"Can we go to the Leaf Village sometime? It sounds awesome, maybe they even have a princess there!" Taro exclaimed excitingly.

"Taro, give it a rest, even if there was a princess there, it's not like she'd ever like someone like you." Kira snorted. She had decided to take advantage of the teams momentarily break and was sitting down against the tree's trunk under its shade.

"To answer your question, Taro, the chances of us getting any missions are very slim since they would most likely be B-rank and up. But perhaps if I feel you all are ready, you can maybe participate in the next chunnin exam that's held there."

"What's the chunnin exam, sensei?" Naoko spoke up again, asking the question that was on the other gennin minds as well.

"You all are gennin now, right? And I am a jounin. The rank in between the two is chunnin, but to become a chunnin, you have to participate as a team in the chunnin exams that are held twice a year in the Leaf Village."

Taro straightened up and began jumping around excitingly. "Well then what are we waiting for! Come on, let's go to the Leaf Village now and take the chunnin exams! I betcha we'd breeze right through it, no sweat!"

"Aren't you forgetting something, Taro?" Akeno asked as he pointed over his shoulder towards Daishiro who was standing to the side awkwardly. "We still have to complete this mission first, and besides, the chunnin exams are still a ways away so don't be getting all frantic about them. Speaking of which, we should probably get going, we can get about half way tonight if we go now and then set up camp in the forest."

"Humpf, you're no fun sensei." Taro crossed his arms over his chest and pouted.

"Sorry, Taro but that's just how it is. Now is everyone ready?" Akeno looked around him and everyone nodded back to him. "Okay well then-, wait, where's Kira?"

The girl he mentioned was in fact, no where to be seen. The rest of the team began looking around them for the missing girl when they heard a small snore from the other side of the tree. They walked around it and sure enough, Kira was fast asleep leaning against the tree's trunk.

"Hey, sensei, can I do the honors this time?" Taro whispered beside Akeno.

"Yeah, sure, just don't go too overboard with it, okay."

Taro nodded and quietly tip toed over to the sleeping girl. He crouched down beside her and stuck a finger in his mouth. Pulling the finger out of his mouth, he grinned evilly and quickly stuck the now wet finger, in Kira's ear.

"What the crap, Taro!" Kira yelled furiously at the boy as she instinctively pulled back buried her fist in his gut. This sent the spiky haired boy flying and he landed with a big thud a few yards away. Kira reached up to her ear and rubbed furiously at it, trying to rid it of all saliva.

Taro lay with his back on the ground and grinned widely at her. "Gotcha."

"Ugh, you're so gross, Taro! I'm gonna have a wet ear canal for weeks now!"

"You okay, Taro?" Naoko asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm good, damn she packs a good punch, but it was so worth it!"

"What else were you expecting, Kira? If the only way to stop you from falling asleep during missions is to have Taro give you a wet willy, then so be it." Akeno turned from the, now awake, girl and faced the rest of the group. "Now with that said are we all ready to go?" The team all slowly nodded their heads and Kira had now gotten up and was leaning against the tree with her arms crossed. "Okay, now then, I think we should continue walking for about another three hours or so and then we can make a camp for the night."

"Wait, another three hours of walking? Yeesh, this whole mission thing sounds a lot more fun than it really is," Taro groaned, "especially when you're supposed to be guarding a princess but instead get stuck with a stupid farmer."

"I'm right here you know." Daishiro spoke up, sounding a little hurt.

"Tch, yeah whatever."

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><p>"Are we there yet?" Taro whined from the back of the group. The team had continued walking and was now in the middle of a dense forest.<p>

"For the thousandth time, no, Taro. We'll be there soon, just be patient." Akeno exasperated from the front of the group.

"But I wanna be there now!" Taro whined again. "My legs are about to fall off and I'm so tired I think I might collapse soon!"

"If you're so damn tired then why don't you stop talking, it might save you some energy." Kira retorted.

"And all of our ears." Daishiro muttered under his breath. Daishiro had finally had enough of the boy after one too many farmer jabs.

"Hey I have an idea! Let's play some good old twenty questions to pass time!" Taro exclaimed. "Here, I'll go first." Taro racked his brain for an object to think of and his eyes lit up when he thought of one. "Okay, I got one. Now someone ask a question."

The group was dead silent for a few moments and Taro looked to each of them pleadingly. "Is it a living thing?" Naoko spoke up half out of sympathy.

"Yep! Ask another question."

Naoko tugged at his shirt a bit and pondered over what question to ask. "Um, is it a plant?"

"Nope, ask another."

Naoko looked to the other team members who obviously wanted nothing to do with the game. "Okay, is it a person?"

"Yeah, you still got seventeen questions left so pick them wisely." Taro was bouncing on his toes clearly enjoying the game and determined to win.

"It's a princess." Kira blandly stated. She was walking beside Daishiro and had her fingers laced behind her head, staring up at the thick tangle of branches and leaves.

Taro gaped his mouth open at her. "What the hell, Kira? Are you some sort of mind reader?"

Kira shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "Nah, you're just too predictable."

"Well fine, I'll just think of something else then. Okay got it. You'll never get this one." Taro said smugly.

"Squirrel."

"That's not fair; you didn't even ask any questions!"

"No one ever said you had to ask any questions if you already knew what it was." Kira yawned loudly and stretched her arms.

Taro fumed and looked around frantically. "Just wait, this next one will be hard-"

"Fan."

"How'd you get that one? I didn't even get to finish thinking of it!"

"Maybe I am psychic after all." Kira grinned smugly.

Taro looked hard at the girl and then lifted a finger to tap his chin. "Okay, this one is hard for sure, there's no way you'll get this one on the first try!"

"Gloves."

Taro began pulling at his hair in frustration. "What are you!"

Kira looked at him and snickered. "I guess I'm just a genius."

"Whatever, I'm tired of this game anyway." He mumbled under his breath and crossed his arms.

Daishiro looked curiously over at Kira and leaned down to whisper in her ear. "So, um, how did you know what he was thinking of?"

Kira turned to him and gave him a small wink. "A magician never reveals her secrets."

"Oh come on, I promise I won't tell."

Kira snickered to her self and whispered back, "Like I said earlier, Taro is way too predictable. Did you notice what he did every time before thinking of an object?" Daishiro dumbly shook his head not quite getting the point. "Okay, I knew what he was thinking of because every time he would think of something, he always looked straight at what he was going to think of."

Daishiro looked at her and sudden realization came across his face. "Wow, I honestly didn't notice that. But wait a second, the first one was a princess and there are obviously no princesses around."

"Well for that one, Naoko had already asked a few questions and it was determined that the object was a person. Knowing Taro, the only person he would pick would be a princess."

Daishiro straightened back up and thought for a moment. "Hm, interesting."

"Are we there yet?" Taro practically yelled this time, causing everyone to cover their ears.

"Actually, yes, Taro, we are." Akeno stated and walked over to a tree where he then proceeded to dump his backpack onto the soft earth.

"Really? Yeah, finally!" Taro ran over to another tree and immediately collapsed at its base. "Whew! Man I'm tired. I could sleep for a whole day straight!"

"Don't get too comfy, Taro, we still have to set up camp and then I have a little exercise I want you three to do." Akeno said. He had begun to unpack items from his small backpack and was spreading them around him.

"Did you just say we have to do an exercise? Please tell me I heard you wrong." Kira looked at her sensei in disbelief.

"No, you heard me correctly." Akeno looked up at the young kunochi curiously. "Come on, Kira, don't give me that look. Trust me, it's just a small little exercise that I think you should all try. Besides, it'll be perfect with all the trees around."

"Why will it be good with all the trees around?" Taro replied. "Don't tell me we're going to have to do kicking and punching drills, I hate those!"

"No, it's something completely different from that. I'm going to teach you how to climb trees without your hands. It sounds weird but what you're going to do is channel your chakara to the soles of your feet and that will enable you to climb the tree."

Taro scratched his head in confusion and looked strangely at his sensei. "I don't think I quite follow."

Akeno sighed, "Here I think it might make more sense if I just show you." With that he brought his fingers in front of his face in a seal. "Okay so right now I'm channeling chakara to the soles of my feet, and with this you have to be precise, if you use too much or too little, it won't work." Akeno brought his hand down and walked over to the tree. "Now that I have channeled the perfect amount of chakara to my feet, the chakara will make it so that my feet stick to the tree." Akeno gently placed his right foot up against the tree and then lifted his left foot to the tree. He then began to casually walk straight up the tree with his hands stuffed in his pockets. When he reached a branch he crouched down and looked down at all his students. "So you guys think you can handle it?"

"Heck yeah! This'll be no sweat, easy peasy." Taro cracked his knuckles in the anticipation while Naoko looked up at his sensei with a look of determination. Kira just gave a small shrug that was accompanied by a loud yawn.

Akeno smiled down at his students. "Okay then, show me what you've got."

Taro immediately rushed at the tree as fast as he could and raced up the tree. He only got about three feet up the tree before he came tumbling back down and landed on his butt. Naoko, who was at the tree beside Taro, was not able to get much higher than Taro, but was able to land cleanly on his feet. Kira on the other hand, got only about a foot off the ground before also tumbling down like her teammates.

Akeno chuckled from his position in the tree. "Not as easy as it looks, huh?"

Daishiro looked at the eldest ninja with his mouth hung agape. "Wait, how were you able to do it and they weren't?"

"Well, I'm a jounin and have acquired great chakara control over the years. They, however, are just gennin and this is an exercise to help them hone in on their chakara control." Akeno answered the young farmer. He then looked down at his students whom had once again fallen from the trees. "Well it seems that should keep you three occupied for the time being. I'm going to go scout ahead and check the area while you three continue practicing." He gave them all a quick salute and launched off the tree he was just crouched on.

"Just you wait, I'm going to have this mastered in five minutes." Taro muttered under his breath. His took in a deep breath and charged at the tree. This time he was able to get six feet off the ground before tumbling down again. "What the hell is wrong with this tree!"

Naoko was also apparently having a hard time with it and was already panting beside Taro. "This is a lot harder than I thought it'd be, how are you doing, Kira-chan?"

Taro and Naoko both looked over at their fellow teammate only to find that she was busy napping at the tree's base.

"Come on, Kira! You have to practice this with us or you'll become the weak link to our team and will slow us down." Taro pouted at the young girl.

Kira opened one eye and looked at Taro curiously. "Psh, yeah this exercise is the oldest in the book, my mom taught me it years ago."

"Seriously, Kira? We know you're lying, we just saw you try and do it and you could barely leave the ground without falling on your face." Taro retorted back.

Kira chuckled to herself, "Nope, I just didn't want sensei to see I could do it."

"Why's that?" Naoko asked curiously.

"Well, if he saw that I could do it, then he'd probably give me another exercise to work on or worse, he'd make me go scout ahead with him." She shuddered at the even thought of one of these things. "So I thought I'd just pretend like I didn't know how to do it, this way I can get some good shut eye while sensei's gone."

"Well I still don't believe you can do it." Taro replied, crossing his arms.

Kira rolled her eyes at him and casually walked up the tree to one of its towering branches, not making the tiniest slip up. She lazily stretched her arms over her head and sat down on the branch with her legs dangling down. "Do you believe me now?"

Taro made a disgusted sound and turned his back to her, resuming his training.

"You know, Taro, I'm glad you made me climb the tree, this really is a good napping spot." Kira yelled down to the boy, who pretended not to hear her.

* * *

><p>A few hours later and Naoko and Taro were still trying to climb up the tree. In the meantime, Daishiro had unpacked his stuff and was lying down against a tree. The sun had already set a while ago and Kira was still asleep on the tree's branch.<p>

Taro fell back down from the tree and was gasping for air. "Why is this so hard!" He was making good progress and was now able to reach about twenty feet up the tree before losing his control. Naoko was also panting beside him and was barely beating him by about three feet. "Where even is sensei? Shouldn't he be back by now?"

Kira peeked one eye open and shrugged down to her loud teammate. Now that she thought about it, Akeno had been gone for quite a while. It should've only taken him an hour tops to scout the area. It had nearly been three hours since he left. The black-haired kunochi sat up from against the tree and looked down at her teammates to see what progress they had been making. She was about to reply back to Taro but stopped when she saw a silver glint in one of the trees on the other side of the clearing. She leaned forward trying to get a better look at it. _What is that? It looks kind of like a- _But her thoughts were cut off and her eyes grew wide when she realized what it was. She tried to yell down something to her teammates but was frozen in place as she stared at the thrown kunai, headed straight for her.

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><p><strong>Guess what time it is? REVIEW TIME! (said in the voice of Finn the Human for those of you who watch Adventure Time which is a freaking awesome show for those of you who don't know it) Yep anytime is a good time to review, but if you review right now then you can read this fanfic for absolutely FREE! (now said in the voice of an annoying infomercial where they try and get you to call now for a free keychain or something...) Okay now I'm done with all that voice stuff but seriously, REVIEW! (please! :]) <strong>


	5. Ambushes and an Angry Swordsmen

**And here's the next chapter! Enjoy! :D**

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><p>Kira's throat filled with panic as the kunai came closer and closer to her head. <em>Come on, Kira, move! <em>She desperately tried to move her muscles, but they were frozen in place. She took a big gulp and could only stare helplessly as the kunai closed the distance between them. Just when she thought she was done for, another kunai hit the one headed for her and knocked it into a nearby tree. Her eyes grew wide in shock and she looked down in the direction the second kunai came from.

"What are you doing, Kira? Get out of the way!" Taro shouted at her from down below as he reached behind his back to draw his sword out. He gripped it naturally with both hands and began to take charge. "Quick everyone, get in formation around Daishiro, he's our main priority right now and needs to be protected."

Naoko shook with fear but nonetheless ran over to Daishiro and stood in front of him, a kunai held tightly in one hand. Kira snapped to her senses and swiftly jumped to the forest floor to join her teammates. The three genin now stood in a tight ring around Daishiro with their backs facing him.

"Wh-what's going on?" Daishiro trembled when he saw the students circle him and draw their weapons.

Taro stood stiff, with his muscles tense. "Don't worry, Daishiro, we won't let whoever it is harm you." His eyes scanned over the area of brush in front of him, searching for the slightest flicker of motion.

Taking a deep, and steadying her breathing, Kira pulled her fan from her back and held it at the ready in front of her. She had shaken the original feeling of fear off and now stood level headed, quickly thinking out any possible strategies. The bush to her right shook and a series of kunai came flying out from behind it. Kira easily unfolded her fan and sent a blast of air at the oncoming kunai, stopping them in their path. _So that's were you are _she thought to herself. Another round of kunai came from the other side of her and Taro was easily able to block them with his jagged blade. _And there's another one _whoever these people were, they weren't the brightest. With every kunai thrown at them, the gennin were able to pinpoint yet another enemy location. _One, two, and three _Kira glanced over her shoulders, noting each of the enemies' locations. From the looks of it, it seemed they were only up against three enemies. More kunai came out again at the young girl and she swiftly blocked them with the edge of her fan. _Seriously, more kunai? Don't they realize it's not working? _Kira flicked her gaze from side to side trying to figure out what to do. _So we only know how many there are and where they're hidden. We still don't know the level these guys are or what their fighting methods are. _Kira desperately thought of what the next move should be. _We're currently at a great disadvantage since we're out in the open and even with that, we still have Daishiro we have to protect, how troublesome. _

"What should we do now?" Naoko muttered, his voice shaky with fear.

Kira closed her eyes in concentration, "Hold on, let me think for a bit."

"Well I'm not going to sit around waiting for them to slaughter us." Taro yelled at his teammates. Bringing his sword behind him, he charged forward, toward the direction of one of the enemies.

"Taro, wait!" Kira shouted at the spiky haired boy, reaching forward to try and stop him.

The boy ignored Kira's shout and continued to run forward. He reached a few meters but was blasted back by a volt of electricity.

He stumbled a few steps backwards and brought his sword forward. "What the hell was that?"

Without another moment of hesitation, he rushed forward again, this time swinging his sword forward at the spot where he was electrocuted. The sword bounced off what appeared to be nothing, and he was once again shocked.

Taro seethed with anger and he brought his sword forward again. "Now I'm really pissed, this time will work for sure." He charged forward again and struck the, what seemed to be a barrier, with all his might. Bolts of lightning transferred through his sword and shocked him again.

"Taro, would you stop already! It's obviously not working." Kira yelled at him.

The brown-headed ninja spun around to face her. "Do you have any better ideas?"

"Just hold on and let me think for a second, would ya!" She scanned the area and looked for anything that seemed to be suspicious. "Hey, Taro, can you mark exactly where it is you're getting shocked?"

He gave her a quick nod and proceeded forward. He reached the point and drug his sword through the dirt to mark the spot. "What now?"

"Well I'm guessing it's some kind of barrier, but can you check to see what other points it reaches to?" Kira asked. "And to avoid getting shocked, try channeling your elemental chakara through your sword like you normally do."

Taro scratched his head in embarrassment. "Oh yeah, I guess I kinda forgot about that."

He ran forward to a different point on the other side of them, charging with his sword in front of him to ram the barrier. A few meters away and he could see the electric volts from the barrier jumping forward across his sword. Taro channeled his chakara through his sword and the electric volts were quickly pushed back by his own lightning bolts that struck out from the jagged blade. Once the electric volts were gone, he made another mark in the earth and ran on to the next point near the group. He continued to do this until there were multiple marks surrounding the group.

"Wait a second," Kira held up a hand to Taro when he was about to charge forth again. She looked down at the various marks that covered the ground and tried to connect the points. Her eyes lit up in sudden realization. _Of course, it was the kunai the entire time. _She turned to face Taro and the rest of the group. "The kunai that they threw earlier are what's powering the barrier. Look at the ground, everywhere the barrier is, is where the kunai landed. There must be some type of jutsu they're using that's channeling lightning through the kunai and creating the barrier." _So they weren't just randomly throwing the kunai, they had it all planned out from the get go. _

A deep laugh came from behind the trees and a tall man stepped out into the clearing. "Very good young lady. I see you've figured out our technique, but too bad for you, you're too late." The tall man's head was covered in a black bandana and scars covered his lower jaw. "Go ahead and come on out, boys." He yelled over the group.

On cue, two other men walked out into the clearing and came to stand beside the first one. One had bandages covering his arms and was bigger than the other two, while the other one had long white hair that hung down his back.

"Hey, Fumio, what should we do with the brats?" The one with white hair yelled over to the one with scars on his jaw.

"I say we should just kill them all now." The bigger one grinned maliciously.

"No, Goro, we need to keep them alive so that we have leverage over the other one." Fumio stated.

"Ah, you're no fun." The white-haired one said with a small snicker.

"Just wait, Haruo, we'll soon get our revenge." Fumio answered back.

Haruo ran a hand through his hair and leaned back up against one of the towering trees. "So when do you think he'll be coming back?"

"Shouldn't be too long now, after all, if he's as good as I remember, the group we sent to slow him down should have been beaten by now." Fumio replied. "Besides, they don't call him Suna's Silent Flame for nothing."

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" Kira yelled and a great gust of wind came charging straight at the enemies.

"What the-." Haruo began but was knocked off of his feet and hit his back against the tree he had been leaning on.

Kira stood steadily in front of the gang, with her giant fan held open beside her. Taro also appeared by her side with his sword drawn, the edge covered in a small amount of blood and Naoko stood behind them, with his kunai still held in defense, protecting Daishiro.

"But how were you able to break the barrier?" Fumio stuttered out, blood trickling down his chin from the impact with a tree he had made.

Taro grinned triumphantly at them. "Well you see, I used this baby right here." He twirled his great sword around his hand and easily lifted it to point at the three enemies. "Not only is my sword wicked awesome in how strong it is, but I can also channel my chakara nature into it. Now since my chakara nature is lightning, that'd be no good for the barrier since the barrier itself was already a lightning based jutsu. But the other cool thing my sword can do is take other peoples chakara nature and use it. The only way to do this though, is if you get that person's blood on the blade, and it so happens that Kira's nature is wind, which beats lightning and therefore I was able to use the wind chakara to slice through the barrier." The boy finished with a great smirk on his face.

Kira slapped her palm to her forehead in frustration and turned to look at the boy. "What is your problem, Taro? Do you not remember anything from the academy?" She gave him a death glare. "You never give the enemy the basics behind your techniques! If they know your techniques, they can eventually find a way to use it against you!"

Taro shrunk a little under Kira's wrath and looked away guiltily. The three men that had been blasted by Kira's fan, were now full heartedly laughing.

"They're nothing but a bunch of kids! Ha, they don't even know who they're up against, do they?" Haruo spat out in between laughs.

"Well why don't we go ahead and show them then, shall we? After all I think they need to be taught a lesson for hitting us like that." Fumio replied with a grin plastered across his face.

"Oh crap." Kira muttered under her breath. "Naoko, I want you to protect Daishiro with your life if you must, we need to protect him and since it seems that they're not after him, Taro and I should be able to hold back these goons." Kira yelled over her shoulder to the blonde boy.

Naoko looked her in the eye and brought his kunai up in front of him, the blade shaking in his hand.

"Another thing, Naoko, you need to calm down. We can do this, but not if don't calm down. Just take easy breaths and believe in yourself, we know you can do it." Kira glanced back at him and gave him a small, reassuring smile.

The blonde boy steadied his gaze and took even breaths. His hands stopped shaking and a new look of determination filled his pale blue eyes.

"Hey kid, maybe you should stop blabbing and instead pay attention to the people in front of you." Goro yelled over to Kira. He cracked his knuckles in anticipation and gave the kids an evil smirk.

"Well I'm not gonna wait for you all to make the first move." Taro yelled at them as he swung his blade in front of him, channeling Kira's wind chakara into it.

The blade was greatly lengthened by the wind chakara and it came out at the three foe right above their heads. The trees they had been leaning on were now cut from the blade's chakara and then came tumbling down behind the enemy.

"Ha! You didn't even hit us!" Haruo shouted out at the brown-headed boy.

Taro sweat dropped at this and looked at them a little bit embarrassed. He turned to Kira and whispered under his breath. "Yeah I guess I'm not used to your wind chakara."

"Then go back to your own elemental chakara!" Kira hissed back.

"What are you two muttering about?" Goro shouted over. "Don't you dare ignore us!" He then made a couple hand seals and thrust his palm to the earth. "Earth Style: Tearing Earth Turning Palm!"

The earth beneath the students and Daishiro's feet shook and began to turn upon itself, twisting into a vortex. The trees close by were pulled down into the earth and collapsed onto each other. Dust from the soil was kicked up and the area was covered by a great dust cloud. After a few moments, the dust was cleared and what was left behind of the area was a circular pile of trees and roots that were pulled into the earth.

Goro smirked and let out a small chuckle. "You see, that's what you brats get!"

"Think again!" Kira yelled from overhead the group.

She was sitting atop of her fan that was gliding swiftly through the air. In the midst of the jutsu Goro had used, she had quickly grabbed Taro, Naoko, and Daishiro and brought them to the branch of the nearest tree, to keep them out of danger. She reached into the pouch on her right hip and dug out a handful of kunai that she threw down at the enemy. The enemy jumped out of the way of the kunai and laughed at the young girl.

"Is that all you got? Just a fancy fan and a bunch of kunai?" Haruo smirked up at Kira.

Kira just looked at him and even smirked herself. Seconds later and the kunai she had thrown exploded, engulfing the enemy in flames. _Why don't I use paper bombs more often? _Kira smiled to herself, admiring the damage the paper bombs had caused. Once the smoke had cleared, the three men were gone from sight and instead there was a shell of mud covering the place they had once been. The mud quickly fell back down around them once the blasts were over. _Stupid Earth style people. _Kira cursed in her head.

Goro slowly brought his hands down from in front of him and began to laugh. "So you also know how to use paper bombs, big whoop. But just that knowledge won't be enough to save you here." He cracked his head from side to side and rolled his shoulders a bit.

"Hold on, Goro. Let me have some fun with these two." Haruo held an arm in front of his larger teammate.

The massive man nodded at him and gave him a big grin. "Just leave some for the rest of us too."

Haruo smiled back at him and walked forward towards the tree that the team was standing in and that Kira had just landed on. He reached behind his back and pulled out a long, thin katana. Haruo lifted the sword with ease and pointed it up at the tree. "Hey, you, the one with the sword. How'd you like to test your blade against mine?"

Taro stood up from the crouch he had been in and looked down at the white-haired man. "And what if I said no?"

"Then I'd come up there my self and you would have to risk the possibility of me accidentally hurting one of your teammates." Haruo replied with a smirk.

The spiky haired genin was about to jump down when Kira put an arm in front of him to hold him back. "Don't do it, Taro."

He looked back at the girl. "I've got no choice, Kira. Trust me, maybe this will help stall them until sensei comes back. Besides it looks like they're really underestimating us and are just trying to mess around with us. They even said something earlier about needing to keep us alive so I doubt they'd actually kill me if given the opening." He met her emerald eyes with his own brown ones and gave her a reassuring look. "Don't worry about it."

Kira slowly put her arm down and gave him a quick nod. "Just, please don't be an idiot and get yourself killed." She smiled lightly at him and let him proceed.

He looked over his shoulder at her and gave her a big grin. "I promise I won't, besides, there wouldn't be anyone for you to argue with if I got killed. We wouldn't want you taking all your anger out on Akeno-sensei and Naoko."

The black-haired girl rolled her eyes at him and laughed under her breath. "Whatever you say, Tanaka."

He laughed a bit as well before easily jumping down from the tree and landing gracefully in front of Haruo. Taro grabbed his own sword from his back and pointed it back at the white-haired man. Haruo met his jagged blade with his own thin blade and pushed forward a bit. "May the best man win." With that he pushed off of Taro's blade and rushed towards the brown-haired boy.

Taro swiftly brought his sword up and blocked Haruo's katana. He ducked another swing from the older man and swept his sword at Haruo's feet. The man jumped over the swinging blade and brought his sword straight down at Taro's head. Taro pushed off of the ground and leapt back a few feet away to get some distance. He pointed his sword at Haruo, gripping it with both hands, and widened his stance. A few moments later and streaks of lightning began to leap across his blade and into the air, towards Haruo. The lightning bolts raced through the air and closed in on the older man. Haruo's eyes widened and he quickly jumped to the side, out of the bolts range. Taro sent another set of lightning bolts at his opponent, forcing Haruo to continually jump away and dodge them. After a few more attempts to hit the man, Taro saw his chance when Haruo had jumped especially high into the air to avoid the lightning strike. The younger boy raced forward at the man and met him in the air, bringing his jagged blade forward. Haruo was just barely able to block it with his own katana and he kicked the boy in the stomach, sending him back down at the earth. Taro snarled up at his opponent and brought his sword swinging in front of him. This time instead of lightning bolts coming from the blade, like Haruo was expecting, a thin rush of wind caught Haruo midair and hit him square in the face. The older man fell from the sky and brought a hand over his face as he screamed in pain.

Goro and Fumio began uncontrollably laughing at their teammate and were practically rolling on the floor, holding their sides. "Did you see that!" Goro bellowed in between laughs. "The kid just blasted him in the face!"

Fumio's eyes were beginning to water from laughing so hard. "Look at him; he can't even beat a kid! And he calls himself a swordsman!"

"Just shut up you two!" Haruo yelled at them. He brought the hand that was covering his face down and looked at Taro with hate filled eyes. A long gash ran diagonally from the top of his forehead, down to his collarbone, and blood was dripping down from the wound. "You're gonna pay for that, kid. Nobody messes with me like that and gets away with it."

He spat a bit of blood from his mouth onto the ground and turned back to look at Taro. Without giving the boy another moment to react, he was charging towards him at full speed with his katana pointing forward. He let out a blood curling yell and Taro had a mere split second to jump out of the way of the oncoming blade. Haruo leapt again at the boy and brought his blade forward, once again barely missing Taro. Taro swung at Haruo again with the wind chakara, but the man was able to dodge it and the slice of wind hit a far off tree, slicing neat cuts into its bark. Haruo continued to push Taro back, swinging his katana every few steps, while Taro was barely able to dodge each stroke. They continued this until Taro found his back up against a tree.

"Now you're mine!" Haruo brought his sword over his head and swung down at the younger boy.

Taro held his sword up horizontally above his head and was able to block Haruo's blade with it. He had his right arm still gripping the hilt and his left arm was holding the end of the sharp blade on its flat side, pushing up against Haruo's katana.

Haruo cackled in Taro's face as he pressed down on the boy's sword. "What are you going to do now, kid? You may have some skill, I'll give you that, but there's no way you're stronger than me. Face it, in this position, I have the advantage here." He pushed down harder on Taro's sword and the jagged blade dropped a little so that it was now inches away from the boy's face. Taro tried with all his might to push the sword back up, but it was no use. "Any last words, kid?"

Taro met Haruo's eyes and a small grin formed on the spiky haired boy's face. "Yeah, I got something to say. Stop calling me a kid!"

With that, Taro channeled his chakara into the blade and small streaks of lightning formed and danced across the jagged sword. The lightning streaks ran across the blade and transferred onto Haruo's katana, running up the length of it and electrifying Haruo to the very core. The white-haired man was blasted backwards and landed heavily on his back. Taro was now completely out of breath and gasping for air after using so much of his chakara. He bent over and rested his hands on his knees as he tried to steady his breathing. The younger boy looked up at Haruo, making sure to keep a watchful eye on him.

Goro and Fumio again erupted with laughter. They held their sides and mockingly pointed at their fallen companion. "Ba ha ha ha, he got blasted again! Damn, Haruo, you're getting your ass whooped." Goro bellowed.

Haruo now sat up from where he had been blasted back and turned an evil eye towards Taro. "You little bastard, I'm gonna kill you!" Haruo heaved himself up off the ground and spat more blood onto the earth.

Fumio slapped a palm to his forehead and shook his head. "Hey, Goro, why don't you go and help out Haruo. I'll go take care of that pesky girl up there; we don't want to give her the chance to run."

The heavy built man nodded down to Fumio. "What about that blonde kid?"

"He won't do anything, besides; he's too busy _protecting their escort_." Fumio snorted the last bit.

Goro grinned back at Fumio before taking off towards Haruo, who had just begun to run at Taro again.

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><p>Kira was still standing in the tree with Naoko and Daishiro, watching Taro and Haruo's fight. Taro had just hit Haruo dead on with his lightning blast and looked about worn out. She looked carefully over at the other two enemies who hadn't made any sort of movements since the fight had started. They now stood close together and exchanged a few words before both looking up in her direction. The bigger one nodded and said something back to Fumio before then starting off towards where Taro and Haruo were. <em>Aw crap, what are they planning now? <em>She thought quickly to herself. Taro looked like he had just about had it and now he was going to have to fight against two men. _Come on, Taro; just hang in there a bit longer. _Kira thought desperately as she looked down at the brown haired boy.

"Hey, sweetheart, you might wanna pay attention to what's in front of you and stop worrying about your boyfriend."

_Crap, what a drag. _Kira thought as she looked down at Fumio who was running up the tree and closing in on her.

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><p><strong>Heehee, sorry for the cliff hanger from last chapter and now this one! Hopefully this wasn't too painful to read through, it was my first attempt at a fight scene so hope it was too bad! Like I always say... please review! Any types of reviews are greatly appreciated, good, bad, whatever, just like to know what you guys think of it! Alas I can't think of anything clever to say right now... so with that said I only have one last thing to say... REVIEW! gracias! :D<strong>


	6. Ninja Stars and Twists

**Hello everyone! I know it has taken forever to get this done but here's the next chaper! See you at the bottom!**

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><p>The scarred man quickly closed the distance between him and Kira and brought a fist back to slam into the girl. Kira brought her arms forward in an "X" form and was able to block his punch with her forearms. The two ninja were rocketed off the tree and were sent flying into the air. During the midair contact, Kira grabbed Fumio's arm with her hand and pulled him towards her to deliver a punch of her own. Her fist brushed the left side of his head and she bent her arm to send an elbow into the unsuspecting man's face. Fumio howled in pain and was sent into a nearby tree. Kira landed on the tree's branch and grabbed her fan from the strap on her back. She looked down at the older man who had already recovered and was glaring up at her. He gave her a wicked smile and spat at the ground.<p>

"I'll make you pay for that little girl. No one messes with me like that and gets away with it." He rolled his shoulders forward and cracked his neck to the side. He brought his hand up in a seal, inches away from his face. "Ninja art: wild water blast!"

A stream of water burst out of his mouth and shot towards Kira. With her fan already out by her side, she whipped it in front of her and sent a wall of air at the oncoming water. The burst of air halted the stream of water and it fell like rain in front of the young kunoichi. "_Easy as pie." _She smirked to herself. The rain from the water blurred her vision for a second and by the time it fell from view Fumio had vanished.

"Looking for someone, sweetheart?" The scarred man appeared behind her and drove a kunai into her back. Kira gasped in surprise and disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a log in her swatted the log to the side furiously and looked to his sides. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" He shouted to the forest. A kunai shot out at him from above and he flicked it away with little effort. "Is that all you got? A little fan and some kunai?" Fumio put a hand to his ear waiting for a response from the hidden girl. "Well I was hoping to have a little more fun with you but if you won't show yourself I'll just have to come and find you then." He reached into the pouch strapped to his back and pulled out a small ninja star with five points instead of four. The oddly shaped ninja star glistened in his hand and almost appeared to be vibrating with excitement. He threw the star into the air above his head and brought his hand in front of his face in a seal. "Scatter!" The star immediately broke apart into five pieces along the points and shot out in separate directions.

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><p>Kira sat crouched on a branch over Fumio's head when she saw him pull the star out. "<em>What on earth is that?" <em>The star seemed to be a lot smaller than an ordinary ninja star and had five points instead of the normal four. Kira sat in puzzlement and desperately tried to rack her brain for any kind of info on the strange star. "_Ugh, if only I hadn't been sleeping in class during the weapons unit!" _Fumio had now just thrown the star into the air before it separated into five equal pieces. She was too far away to hear what Fumio was saying but the seal he made with his hands was definitely not a good sign. Almost as soon as Kira was thinking this to herself, the five pieces dispersed and shot out in different directions.

Kira leaned back against the trunk of the tree she was currently perched on and sighed to herself. "_Well this is just peachy. Not only am I stuck here having to fight him, but Naoko, Daishiro, and Taro are having to fight the other two." _Fumio had driven Kira far away from the others and she could barely make out the distant clashing of blades. From the way it sounded, Taro was still fighting Haruo and who knows what Goro was doing. She clenched her fists in frustration. Somehow she had to find a way back to the others.

A small buzzing noise crept up on Kira's left side and she whipped her head to see one of the star pieces closing in on her. She grabbed her fan and sent a gust of wind at the jagged piece. The wind struck it and the piece fell to the ground below. Before Kira could get her hopes up, the piece rose again from the ground and shot out towards her. "Shit." She pushed herself off the branch and landed swiftly onto the neighboring tree. The jagged piece made a last second turn and started back again towards Kira. The black-haired ninja leapt from branch to branch and weaved back and forth through the forest heights. With no luck the jagged piece continued to follow her and was getting closer and closer with each second. Kira ran down a tree branch towards the trunk, trying to shake off the star piece. When she reached the trunk she pushed off of it and did a back flip to land behind the star piece. Not having enough time to make the drastic change in directions, the piece ran into the trunk and exploded. Kira was blown backwards by the explosion and hit her back against another tree. A sharp pain stabbed at her sides from the impact and she fell onto the trees branch. She coughed up a spot of blood and panted for air. The smoke cleared from the explosion and left a massive hole gaping in the side of the tree. "_Not only do they follow me, but they ignite on impact." _Kira sighed to herself and wiped off the spot of blood from her chin.

"_Why couldn't this have been a normal C rank mission. The kind that doesn't involve rouge ninjas attacking you while your sensei is gone." _This whole ninja thing was starting to become more of a pain than it was worth and Kira was starting to regret her decision of becoming one.

While she was catching her breath, another buzzing noise was zeroing in on her. She looked above her and two more of the pieces were headed her way. Kira was just barely able to dodge them and she took off again through the trees with the pieces hot on her heels. She whipped her fan out and sliced it through the air, sending the pieces down to the ground. The pieces would be back up again shortly but hopefully that would buy her a little time to get some distance away from them. Sure enough within a few seconds after they had fallen, the star pieces came bulleting back up through the air and now a third piece had joined in the chase. Kira picked her way through the intertwining limbs of the towering trees and tried shaking off the star pieces.

The fight was beginning to make Kira appreciate the trees more and more. She couldn't even begin to imagine how she would avoid the star pieces back in the open desert.

_"I can't keep going on like this, I need to find a way to get rid of them!" _After a few moments, the last piece had arrived and now all four were closing in on her.

She picked up her pace and flung back a couple kunai to try and dislodge the stars from their path. The two outside pieces were hit straight on and they broke away from the pack, each headed in opposite directions.

The endless running was starting to take a toll on her body and exhaustion ran down throughout her legs. A bead of sweat trailed down her forehead and nested in her eye brow. She seemed to be a good hundred meters now from where Fumio was, but whenever she tried to get closer to him, the star pieces pushed her back farther. This little game of cat and mouse needed to end immediately or the pieces would surely soon catch her. As she was thinking this, the two pieces from before came at her from the front, causing her to dive off the tree branch and down to a lower one. In the couple of seconds during her descend, the pieces followed her downwards and gained on her even more.

It continued this way for a few more minutes, she would run faster and get more distance between them, and they would break apart to force her to change directions. Kira desperately tried to think of any type of plan to get rid of them. She couldn't waste her time here while the others were back at the camp fighting.

"_Come on, Taro, just hold on a little while longer." _Since her fight with Fumio had begun, he had brought her out farther and farther away from camp and the others. The star pieces wouldn't let her anywhere near Fumio or the camp and she was stuck leaping across the tree tops, completely at the mercy of the deadly weapon. Taro could easily take on Haruo, but what about the other guy? Goro appeared to be proficient in some earth ninjutsu, but she had really only gotten to see him do one. It was hard to tell just what he could do by their brief encounter. Naoko was defending Daishiro. Would Goro target him? Or would they gang up on Taro? She couldn't bear to think about the possibilities. Knowing Taro, he'd do everything he could to make sure Goro didn't go after Naoko and Daishiro. Although they would never admit it to him, Taro and Kira both knew that Naoko would never stand a chance against Goro or Haruo, let alone protect Daishiro at the same time. All he had really going for him was his mediocre kunai abilities. He was below average in nearly every other aspect and even in a hand to hand combat with a kunai, he still lacked the skills he would need to save him. Kira couldn't stand to think about what would happen if Taro couldn't distract Haruo and Goro from Naoko. "_Please, Naoko, whatever you do, stay out of the fight!" _

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><p>It had been a least ten minutes since he had released the intricate ninja star on the unsuspecting girl, and Fumio hadn't seen her since. Not long after setting the weapon on her had he heard a distant explosion which meant one of the pieces had made contact. It was only after the explosion, when the rest of the pieces didn't return to him, that he realized the first one hadn't finished her.<p>

"She's got some stamina I'll give her that." He murmured to himself.

Haruo and Goro were probably already finished with the other two pests by now and would have a fit if he didn't show up soon. _"They better not kill either one, we have to keep them alive as leverage." _He thought to himself. He tilted his head and cupped a hand to his ear. Nothing could be heard except a distant shuffling of running feet. This was just getting ridiculous, it'd been a while since anyone had been able to outrun his ninja star for so long.

He still had his hand cupped to his ear when he heard something to his right. He whipped his head around in the direction of the noise just as two ninja stars shot out at him from behind another tree. The ninja stars criss-crossed in front of him and passed him on either side.

"Ha! You missed me!" Fumio shouted at the tree, waiting for the owner of the stars to come out. It must be a back up squad or maybe the brats sensei coming back. After all, the girl was still out at running from his ninja star. "Well why don't you just come out and show yourself then? Or are you a coward?" He yelled at the tree.

Fumio felt a small tug at his sides and he turned to see the ninja stars coming back. He smirked and tried to lift his arm to knock them out of the way, but he couldn't. Something was holding his arms down to his sides. He looked closer at his arms and noticed a thin line of wire running horizontal across his bicep. Without warning, the stars criss-crossed again around the tree and the wire tightened on him. He was suddenly yanked back and his back hit the trunk of the tree. The stars with the wire attached to them wrapped around the trunk of the tree several more times until the wires securely held him in place against the tree.

"What the hell? Let me go, or I swear I'll kill you!" The scarred man yelled at the forest. The only response he received was a tightening on the wires against his skin.

He gritted his teeth in pain and tried to break away from the wire. Whoever it was didn't seem to want to show themselves. He knew the team they had sent to stall Akeno wasn't the best, but he thought they would've been able to keep him occupied for at least a little longer. If this really was Akeno, then why wasn't he already dead? Fumio had heard plenty of horror stories about Suna's Silent Flame from the rest of his clan, and none of them ended happily. Most of the stories details are vague and his methods of killing were almost a complete mystery. The only thing they were sure of, was that all his attacks were done silently and suddenly. The only warning any of his victims got was the dark, fire like red of his long hair they saw before their death, hence his infamous name.

A loud explosion sounded in the far distance followed by three more consecutive ones. A wide grin formed on Fumio's face and he threw his head back to let out a loud cackle. "Ha ha ha! You hear that?" He shouted back at the hidden person. "That was your precious little student getting blasted by my ninja star!" There was no way anyone could've survived an explosion like that.

It sounded like all the remaining star pieces had ignited at once, which definitely would've caught her. Oh well, they still had the other two students to use against Akeno, it wasn't like her death was a waste. Actually it was pretty perfectly timed. She couldn't of picked a better moment to get killed.

"Too bad, if only you had gotten here a little sooner and you might have been able to save her." Fumio taunted at the trees.

"Save who?" Kira said as she walked out from behind the tree, holding the tight wire in her hand.

Fumio's jaw dropped and he stared at her in disbelief. "But I heard the explosions, and you running, and-" he paused for a second, "you should be dead!"

The black-haired kunoichi shrugged her shoulders and gave a bored yawn. "Your point?"

"Don't mess with me! I know I heard you get blasted, my ninja star is better than that, it wouldn't of just blown up on nothing. You did something to it."

"Oh really?" she asked sarcastically. "No I didn't do anything, I think it just got bored and decided to leave me alone and blow up a tree or something. I think it had owner issues."

Fumio glared at the girl and gritted his teeth. "Shut the hell up! You did something and I know it! Stop treating me like some idiot!" He clenched his fists into tight balls since his arms were immovable. "Just how the hell did you escape?"

Kira looked down on the scarred man from her spot on the opposite tree branch. "Does it really matter how I escaped? I did and now you're tied up. Telling you isn't going to change your current position. I hate to break it to you, but you're kinda stuck to that tree."

"Just tell me already!" The man shouted at her.

She huffed her bangs out of her face and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "Well if you insist, even though it'll be kind of a drag to explain it." Kira crossed her arms across her chest, making sure to keep a tight grip on the wire in one hand, and tapped her chin with the other. "Let's see now, I mean it really wasn't all that difficult. Your ninja star there did give me some trouble at first, with the whole exploding on me and everything. Definitely gave me a couple good rib bruisings. It didn't take that long though after running around a bit to realize it's flaw. It only senses a target only by sight. After figuring that out, it was a piece of cake. Just knocked them down with my fan and created a clone while they couldn't see me. Then I ran up and hid in a tree while the star pieces chased after my clone who waited for them to come back up."

A look of sudden realization crossed Fumio's face and he looked down at the ground. "So then the explosions earlier, was the pieces hitting the clone."

"Bingo." Kira smirked a little. "Now I would love to sit here and chit chat with you, but frankly, you're kinda evil and your friends are messing with my teammates who I have to go help now. It was a fun fight though, I'll give you that." With that Kira grabbed her fan with her free hand and swung it around in front of her. "Cutting Whirlwind!"

A powerful gust slammed into Fumio and he howled out in pain. The strong winds left cuts all over his body and he fell to his knees as the wire went slack around him. _"There, that should do it." _Kira thought to herself.

A sharp pain stabbed her in the side and she coughed up a bit of blood into her palm. Even though she might of made it seem like a breeze, the first explosion had really done some damage to her and from what she could tell it was more like a couple broken ribs rather than just some bruises. She couldn't continue standing here though, she had to get back to the others and help them out. Kira looked to the east where the camp was and took off through the trees, towards Naoko and Taro.

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><p>Another boulder flew from the sky at Taro and he had to roll to the side to get out of the way. Haruo sliced his katana at him and the genin just barely ducked in time to avoid being decapitated. He pushed himself off the ground and back flipped a couple feet away from the opposing enemies. Naoko and Daishiro were still in the tree and Haruo and Goro had yet to make any advances on them. They clearly didn't care about Daishiro and were targeting their team for a different reason. But what?<p>

Shortly after Fumio and Kira had disappeared through the forest, Goro had joined in the fight with Haruo. Taro had been worried at first that he would go after Naoko and Daishiro, but that thought was quickly dismissed after a few minutes into their fight. Since then it had been and endless stream of attack after attack. When one charged him, the other would be anticipating his dodge and would be waiting for him. It was a miracle he was still alive and breathing.

"Had enough yet?" Goro mocked him and took a couple steps in his direction.

Taro wiped his brow and widely grinned at the two. "Nah, you kidding me? I'm just getting warmed up." His legs quivered and shook from exhaustion and it was all he could do to hold his sword steady in his hands.

He was at a stand still. What he wanted desperately to do was to go out after Kira and make sure she was alright. But he couldn't leave Naoko and Daishiro to fend for themselves. He just had to have faith in Kira to take care of herself.

What they all needed right now was their sensei.

Akeno still hadn't come back and it had been at least two hours since he went to scout ahead.

Goro chuckled and formed his hands in a seal. "Well let me take it to the next level then for you. Earth Release: Fist Rock Technique!"

Goro's right arm became encased in a rock-like outer shell and doubled in size. The towering man charged at Taro and swung his new arm at him like a club. Taro dodged to one side and blocked Goro's fist with his sword. He ran his lightening chakara through the blade but it stopped at Goro's arm.

"Remember, rock is a poor conductor!" Goro brought his fist up again and smashed it into the earth where Taro had been previously standing. The spiky-haired ninja leaped to the side and was met by Haruo's katana. Taro hit his sword against Haruo's and pushed off of it. While in the air, he slashed his sword through the air and sent a blast of Kira's wind chakara at Haruo and Goro.

It was a good thing he could keep her chakara in the sword for a few hours before it ran out. His lightening techniques were powerless to Goro's earth ones.

"Earth Release: Rock Wall!" Goro created a wall of rock in between Taro and them before the blast of wind could reach them. The wind hit the wall and subsided. The rock wall crumbled to the ground from the impact, but Goro and Haruo were left unscratched.

_"Well that worked."_ Taro thought to himself. The other two ninjas stood smirking at him. _"What do I do!"_

A loud round of explosions sounded in the distance and Taro whipped his head around towards the sound.

"Sounds like Fumio just finished the girl off." Haruo commented shrugging his shoulders. "And I thought we told him not to kill anyone. Oh well, I guess he just couldn't help himself."

Taro's stomach dropped. _"What did they mean killed her?" _he gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

_"No that was impossible. Kira couldn't be, dead?"_

Goro turned to look at Taro and nudged Haruo. "Hey look, I think we hit a soft spot! What, you gonna cry about it huh? Did we make the wittle genin angwy?"

Haruo laughed along with Goro. "Well good riddance! That girl got on my last nerve I swear. I'd say this is a win for you, boy. She was a nuisance anyway."

A fire began to boil in Taro's throat and his shoulders shook with fury. "You'll pay. You'll all pay for this." he murmured under his breath.

He lifted his sword into the air and charged at the two ninjas. He swung his sword at Goro only to have him block it with his rock fist. Taro dropped to all fours and ducked beneath Goro's arm. He kicked out his leg and knocked Goro right in the jaw. He followed the heavy man into the air and rammed him in the gut with the butt of him sword. Haruo came at Taro from behind and nicked his left bicep. Blood swelled from the gash and he winced in pain. Taro backed up away from the two ninja, holding his cut with his opposite hand. He gritted his teeth and fell to one knee.

He barely had any chakara left to keep him going. "_Kira, I swear to you, I won't lose!" _Taro swung his sword in front of him and surged the last bit of chakara he had into the blade. A stream of wind and lightening chakara flowed out of the sword and shot out at the two foe. The two chakara natures intertwined and hit the two straight on. Goro and Haruo were blasted backwards and charges of electricity surged through their body. The wind left cuts scattered across their flesh and clothing. Taro smiled to himself and collapsed in the dust. He panted hard for air and sweat dripped down his forehead.

The two ninjas across from him slowly sat up and glared at him. "_Shit, that didn't finish them?" _Taro looked at them in disbelief.

"That was some hit." Goro murmured. "Too bad it wasn't good enough." He chuckled a bit and pushed himself off the ground.

Haruo wiped a spot of blood from his cheek and smirked back at Taro. "Well it looks like he's all out of energy. Let's just finish him now and get it over with."

Goro nodded to his teammate and helped him up off the ground.

_"Well it looks like that's it for me." _Taro thought to himself as the enemy charged out at him. He closed his eyes and waited for the impact to come.

"What?"

Taro felt a breeze and heard Haruo gasp in surprise. He opened his eyes to see Goro and Haruo getting blown off their feet and smacking into a nearby tree. The spiky-haired ninja turned his gaze to his right and saw a fan spread out in front of him.

"Glad I could make it on time." Kira said to Taro, who was still lying on the ground.

A wave of relief washed over him and he couldn't stop himself from grinning at her. "I thought you were dead!"

Kira looked down at him and gave him a small smile. "Yeah well, it seems like you weren't the only one. Fumio back there fell for the same trick."

"So does that mean?"

"Yeah, I beat him."

Taro couldn't contain his happiness. A moment ago he was a goner, and now it seemed like they might just win after all.

The black-haired nin reached down to Taro and gave him a hand to help him up. "Come on, let's finish these two."

He took her hand and hefted himself up to a standing position. "Let's do this"

Kira and Taro stood side by side in front of Haruo and Goro who were lying in a heap on the ground and had a look of fear in their eyes.

The two sand ninja started running forward towards the enemy ninja with their sword and fan in front of them, ready to deliver the finishing blow.

"Nobody move!" Taro and Kira stopped in their tracks and turned their heads toward the voice. Daishiro was standing behind Naoko with a kunai pressed to the boy's throat. "Or he dies."

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><p><strong>Cliffhanger! Yes I know, I am very evil for leaving you with yet another cliffhanger. For that I am sorry (sort of)<strong>

**Okay so I must say that this isn't one of my favorite chapters and I had no idea what to do with it for the longest time (hence the long period of no updates) Anyways, this is the result of my frustration and impatience with this chapter. I just got tired of it and wanted to get it done. So I hope it wasn't too suckish and that it was an alright read. I hope everyone has been doing good and if you want to make me happy then just click the little box below that says review! Even if it's just to say "hi" that will still probably be the highlight of my week! So with nothing else to say but one last word: Review! :)  
><strong>


	7. Chaos and Story Time

**Hi everyone! How's it going? Good? That's good to hear! So I'm sorry for the lack in updates but I really am going to try and get chapters out faster from now on! Well that's all I really have to say for right now so I'll talk to you soon! (Perhaps at the bottom of this chapter? I guess you'll have to read to find out!)**

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><p>The kunai pressed harder against the boy's neck and barely broke the fair, exposed skin. A trickle of blood traveled down the length of Naoko's throat and was absorbed by the thick cloth that he wore wound around his neck and shoulders. His hands had been twisted and pinned behind his back by Daishiro's left hand and the more Naoko struggled, the tighter Daishiro's grip would get in response. The genin could feel the heat of Daishiro's breath against his ear, chilling him to the very core.<p>

"Don't even think about trying to get away, or I'll slit your throat without a second thought." The older man's voice came out as a rough whisper in Naoko's ear. To show he was being serious he twisted Naoko's arms a fraction more until the boy winced in pain.

Taro and Kira remained standing on the forest floor, frozen in place, gaping up at Naoko in confusion and disbelief. The other two, Haruo and Goro, had recovered from their previous encounter and slowly got up, grinning at one another.

It was Taro who found his voice first. "What the hell are you doing, Daishiro!" He yelled at the man, clearly confused. "Let go of Naoko!"

Slowly, Kira came back to reality and spoke up in a calm voice. "It's okay, Daishiro. We know you're scared and don't want to get hurt, but Taro and I can protect you. So just let Naoko go. They don't care about him, so using him as leverage isn't going to solve anything."

Daishiro's shoulders slightly shook with laughter and he looked down at the other two genin. He shook his head to himself and looked expectantly at Goro and Haruo who had been quietly standing to the side, waiting for orders. Taking his cue, the two men immediately seized Kira and Taro while they were distracted.

Both genin were caught completely by surprise and had no time to try and get away from the two men. The struggle was useless since Kira and Taro's chakra was almost entirely depleted from their previous battle. The two older ninja stood behind them, twisting their arms against their backs. Goro and Haruo each grabbed a spool of wire from their back pockets and tied Kira and Taro's hands together behind their backs so that they couldn't free their hands. Haruo and Goro roughly shoved the genin to their knees in front of them and each held out a kunai to the back of Taro and Kira's necks.

"Took you long enough. We didn't expect you to take that long." Haruo yelled up to Daishiro.

"Yeah well I didn't think you two would be beaten so easily by a bunch of kids!" The man shouted back down. "You're lucky I stepped in when I did. Otherwise you'd both be dead."

Haruo and Goro dropped their heads and stared at the ground. "Sorry boss, but they were really good, you know." Goro shouted up to Daishiro.

"I don't want any excuses. They were just kids and you guys should have been able to beat them easily without my help." Daishiro yelled back down.

The two men went silent and focused on Kira and Taro who were knelt before them, making sure to keep the point of their kunai in contact with the backs of their necks.

Naoko gulped and tried to think about what they could do. In their current position, there wasn't a whole lot of options. They were all cornered and one false move could be the end of any of them. "_If only Akeno sensei was here, he would know exactly what to do and we wouldn't even be in this mess." _Naoko thought to himself. He looked down to the forest floor to where Kira and Taro were and tried to make eye contact with them. If any of them would be able to think of a strategy to save them, it'd be Kira. If only he could just meet her gaze and see if she's thought of anything yet. But her eyes were hidden by long bangs and her head was dropped down to the ground in defeat. She might be a little lazy at times, but Naoko knew that she wouldn't give up if she knew a way to save them. But he also knew that was the look she gave when she was giving up. She must've already gone through all the other possibilities and decided that none of them were worth the risk of any of them getting killed, which was very high in their current position. They were finished, if Kira couldn't even think of anything to do, then there was no hope for them. Naoko just prayed that this wasn't the case and that she just had her head down because she was concentrating. _"Come on, Kira!"_

Taro, however had his head up and was glaring daggers at Daishiro. "Hey you!" He growled out at the older man. "Wanna explain to us why the fuck you have a kunai pointing at Naoko and why these buffoons are calling you boss? Huh!"

A heavy slap came across Taro's head, "Hey shut up, kid and stay quiet." Haruo reprimanded him, being careful to not move the kunai at the back of his neck in the process.

"No, it's okay, Haruo, they'll be dead soon anyway. Might as well entertain them a bit while they're still alive." Daishiro spoke down to the white-haired man. He then looked down at Taro, a wide smirk forming on his face. "So you really wanna know what the whole deal is, do you?"

"That's right! Now are you going to explain yourself or what?" Taro gritted his teeth and stared angrily at the man.

"Well, I guess if you really wanna know, I'll tell you." Daishiro chuckled to himself, still holding a tight grip on Naoko's wrists. "As you guys might have already concluded, I'm not a simple farmer traveling to sell crops like I had originally told you."

"Oh really? I couldn't tell by the way you talk to these idiots and threaten to kill my comrade." Taro snarled at Daishiro.

Another hand came down over Taro's head and knocked him over so that he was laying with his face in the dust. "Hey, I thought I told you to keep quiet!" Haruo shouted down at Taro. He took out his sword and placed it near Taro's neck. "Sorry for the interruption, boss, please continue."

"Why thank you. Now where was I? Oh yeah, the whole little farmer thing." Daishiro continued, not even fazed by Taro's earlier outburst. "Well if I'm going to tell the story right, I might as well start from the beginning. You see, I was born and raised by a nice little group of people. We didn't really have a permanent home, instead we went wherever we felt like and stayed in lots of different towns. All the people in these towns were really nice too, they gave us all this food and money absolutely free! I guess you could say it was a pretty good life."

"Sounds like just a bunch of bandits terrorizing villages and stealing all their stuff!" Taro yelled up, his left cheek still pressed to the ground and Haruo's sword resting on his exposed neck.

"Now, now, people have different views on my kind of life style. Some may call it raiding, others may call it borrowing, but this is my story and whatever I say goes." Daishiro smirked at Taro and continued. "So that was the kind of life I lived. My dad was the leader of our little group and through his leadership our group prospered and enjoyed a life of luxury. It wasn't until I was about fourteen and we had moved into a new town just inside the Wind Country borders, that things took a turn for the worse. You see, our little group had made ourselves a name and word had gotten around that we were causing trouble." Daishiro's face twisted in disgust and he glared down at the sand nin below him. "That's when Suna's Silent Flame showed up and destroyed that previous life of mine."

A bead of sweat ran down Naoko's temple and pain radiated from his twisted arms. "_Who's Suna's Silent Flame?" _The blonde genin thought to himself. Though it was hard for Naoko to concentrate on Daishiro's story when there was a kunai pressing into his neck.

Daishiro could feel Naoko tense up in front of him and he snickered to himself. "Oh what, are you just so wrapped up in my story that you can't wait to find out who the Silent Flame is? Or is this kunai making you fell a little uncomfortable?" Daishiro grinned down at Naoko and shrugged his shoulders a bit. "Well no matter, you'll be dead soon anyway, you can sit through the discomfort for a little longer."

Naoko cringed at the feel of Daishiro's voice in his ear. They had to do something and fast. What they really needed right then was Akeno sensei.

"Now, back to my story. As I was saying, the Silent Flame came late one night to the town we were staying in with a couple of other ninja. Without any warning, they attacked us and started killing our men left and right." The older man dropped his head and stared down at the forest floor. "We tried to stop them. We tried to get away, but they gave us no mercy. Before long there was only a small group of us left to fight them off. My dad was one of them. He refused to run away, even when the odds were against him. Towards the very end of the fight, the Silent Flame cornered us and my dad was one of the last ones left to stand up against him. In front of my own eyes, the Silent Flame took my dad's life, without a second thought." Daishiro turned his gaze towards the sky and paused before continuing. "The rest of us were able to get away before we were killed as well, but our group had been torn apart and destroyed. We fled out of the Wind Country and slowly built ourselves up again. I became the leader of the group, to replace my father, and I vowed to get my revenge." He looked back down on the genin. "That's why I'm here now. To avenge my dad."

From down below the tree Naoko was on, he could see Taro try and sit up. "That was a nice little story and all, but what the hell does it have to do with us?"

The black-haired man evened his stare at the sand nin. "See that's the unfortunate part for you guys. To be able to beat the Silent Flame, we need to use you as hostages so that we have leverage over him."

Taro was able to get himself up into a sitting position, Haruo's sword still rested against his neck. "Not to ruin your plan or anything, but we don't even know who the Silent Flame is, how are you going to use us as hostages if we have no connection to the Silent Flame."

Finally Kira spoke up from her position a few feet away from Taro. "Don't you get it, Taro, the Silent Flame is Akeno sensei. They obviously set some sort of trap for him earlier to stall him. That's why it's taking him so long to get back to us. They used the trap as a diversion so that they could attack us while Akeno sensei wasn't around." The black-haired kunoichi lifted her head and looked at Naoko, a look of defeat in her eyes.

That look told Naoko everything. Everything he had been hoping wasn't true suddenly was. Naoko could see it in Kira's eyes; they were done for. She hadn't been able to come up with a strategy to get them out of this. There was nothing they could do, it was over.

"Very good, Kira." Daishiro stated mocklingly. "I'm actually really surprised you didn't figure it out earlier, seeing as though you nearly saw through my disguise when I first met you a couple days ago. I thought I was done for when you saw this scar above my eyebrow." He lifted a finger and traced the barely visible scar above his left eyebrow. "I'm just lucky you're too lazy to question my alibi story about it being from a sickle." The man snickered to himself and shook his head. "Yes we sent a team after your sensei in order to stall him that way we could ambush you. It was all a part of the plan, even since your team was first ordered to escort me. It was all planned to eventually lead up to this moment."

Kira just kept her head hung down, letting her black hair fall into her face.

"What do you want us to do with them, boss?" Haruo spoke up from behind Taro.

"Just leave them alone. They're already out of chakra by this point and they can't do anything while their hands are tied anyways." Daishiro answered the white-haired bandit. "Make sure to take their weapons though, we wouldn't want them to be able to escape."

"You got it, boss." Goro yelled back up to Daishiro. The large man stuffed the kunai he was holding into his pocket and bent down to pick up Kira's fan. He lifted the large fan from the dust and swung it around a bit for fun, sending weak blasts of wind through the air.

"Hey, stop messing with that!" Taro shouted at Goro.

"Oh shut up, kid. Give it a rest." Haruo kicked Taro in the side so that the genin fell over again in the dirt. He then bent down as well and lifted Taro's heavy sword into the air. The white-haired man gripped the sword in both hands and sliced it through the air. He ran over to a tree and easily chopped a good foot into the trunk. "Dang, how did a kid like you get a sword like this?"

"I am not a kid and it's none of your business how I got it." Taro yelled at Haruo. "Now give it back!"

Haruo turned on his heel and sprinted at Taro, stopping in front of the genin with the point of the sword just inches from his neck. "Now wouldn't it be ironic if I were to chop your little head off with your own sword?" Haruo grinned maliciously at Taro. "Don't think I forgot what you did to me." He lifted a finger and pointed to the long gash that ran across his face. "You know, you really pissed me off when you did that. So you better watch what you say." He leaned in closer and whispered next to Taro's ear in a gruff voice. "I don't care if Daishiro told us to not kill you brats; if you piss me off enough, I won't hesitate to slice your throat."

To show he was serious, he drew the sword back and just barely nicked Taro's cheek. Blood welled up from the cut and he could feel heat begin to pulsate from the wound. Haruo and Goro gathered the rest of the genins weapons and put them in a small pile at the bottom of a large tree. They then sat beside the pile and sorted the weapons into separate piles for themselves, calling dibs and fighting over the ninja stars and kunai.

While the men were busy messing with the weapons, Taro got himself to a sitting position and looked over to Kira. "Since when is Akeno sensei some famous Silent Flame?" He whispered over to the girl.

"Why does it matter? It's not like knowing that information is going to help us now." She murmured back, her voice quiet and empty.

"Well I was just asking. We need to think of something to do." Taro whispered loudly to her. "We have to find a way to get free and to get Naoko."

The black-haired girl lifted her head to meet Taro's eyes. "I've already gone through every option in my head and they all end with one of us dead."

He met her emerald eyes and hardened his gaze. "Well think harder! There must be something we can-"

"There's nothing we can do, Taro! Don't you see? We're finished, done, over. There's nothing we can do now but wait for Akeno sensei." Kira yelled at the brown-haired boy, her face red from anger. She looked back down to the ground. "There's nothing we can do." She whispered to herself, almost in denial.

Taro gritted his teeth and stared at her. "The Kira I know wouldn't give up so easily." He continued to stare at her, waiting for her to say something. But she didn't, she just continued to stare hard at the ground, refusing to meet Taro's gaze.

"Well unlike you, I'm not going to just sit around and wait for Akeno sensei to come in blindly to an ambush when I can be doing something about it." Taro spat the last words out in disgust.

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><p>Haruo and Goro were still sorting through the weapons while Daishiro waited in the tree with Naoko, keeping a look out for the famous Silent Flame to appear. Goro picked up the pouch of paper bombs from the pile and stuffed them in his back pocket.<p>

"Hey I want those!" Haruo leaned over and tried to grab the pouch from Goro.

Goro put the pouch in his hand and held it out in the air behind him. "No, Haruo, you just got five kunai. It's only fair that I get the paper bombs!" He used his other hand to keep Haruo away from him.

"Can't I just have like three of them then?" He reached towards Goro and grasped unsuccessfully at the air. "Please, Goro? Can I just, I just want, just gimmie like three? Can I please, just like a couple?" He looked hopefully at Goro, stumbling over words to try and make his wishes known.

"No, dude!" Goro grabbed Haruo's face with his free hand and pushed him away. "Go get your own paper bombs."

"Hey, idiots!" Taro shouted, distracting them from their present quarrel. He had found a way to lift himself into a standing position and was now running straight at the two bandits with his hands still tied together behind his back.

Goro and Haruo immediately grabbed the closest weapon to them and both charged at Taro. The brown-haired sand nin dodged Goro's thrown kunai and sprinted straight up to Haruo. Before Haruo could stop him, Taro bent down and delivered a kick straight up at the man, his foot connecting with the man's jaw. The white-haired man was knocked back and Goro replaced Haruo and ran at Taro now with Kira's fan in hand. The large man swiped at Taro with the fan and it sent a weak gust at the genin. Without Kira's wind chakra that the fan was accustomed to, it was nearly useless. Taro easily took the gust head on and charged through it at Goro. He dodged the now folded up fan Goro had decided to try and use as a club and head-butted the large man right in the gut. It took Goro by surprise at first but he soon recovered and knocked Taro in the side of the head with a strong punch. Haruo ran at the stumbling boy with Taro's sword and he rammed the sword towards him. Taro cleared his head from the punch and spun so that his back faced the oncoming sword and he was able to grab the blade in between his bound hands. The sword cut into his palms and he winced in pain as he tried to keep a grip on the razor sharp blade. Blood ran down his arms from the wounds on his hands and he started feeling dizzy from the earlier punch. Goro joined Haruo and rammed a fist into Taro's stomach before the boy had any time to prepare for the impact.

"Taro!" Kira screamed after watching the men beat Taro.

Haruo ripped the sword from Taro's grasp and spit out a spot of blood from his mouth. His jaw hung awkwardly to the side, clearly broken from Taro's previous kick. "You're going to pay for that you little brat!" He ran again at Taro who was still recovering from Goro's latest blow. "Die, kid!" Haruo brought the sword back and stabbed Taro straight through his right side, just below his rib cage.

"No! Taro!" Kira wailed, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Taro!"

The blade was visible poking out from Taro's back and the tip glistened with his blood. Haruo was still grasping the hilt in his hand and he smirked to himself, satisfied with the cut. He held the sword in his hand and he twisted the blade to the side so it cut through Taro's side even more. The brown-haired boy winced in pain and choked back a screeching howl of pain. He slowly lowered his head to look at the the blade running through him. Taro lifted his eyes and stared at Haruo in shock, his mouth agape. The white-haired man grinned at the boy and yanked the sword from Taro's flesh, causing even more damage. The spiky-haired boy stumbled forward and coughed up blood, his hands still bound behind his back. The world around him began to spin and it was hard for his eyes to keep their focus. He fell to his knees and looked around him. Kira had managed to move herself closer to him and was calling his name desperately, trying to keep him in a conscious state. Dirt and mud covered her face and tears streamed down her cheeks. Taro could see her mouth moving and could feel the distress in her voice, but he couldn't make out her words. He turned his gaze up towards the tree where Daishiro and Naoko were and saw them both still standing there. His brown eyes met Naoko's pale blue gaze and he gave the small boy a weak smile. Pure terror covered Naoko's face and Taro could see him freeze with Daishiro's kunai still at his throat. Taro's eyelids fluttered and his vision started to go black. Gravity soon took over him when he had no strength left to sit up and he fell to the ground, his head hitting the forest floor with a thud. It became dark, and Taro couldn't see anything except for the faint outline of Kira leaning over him, her hot tears falling onto his face.

_"Kira, Naoko, I'm sorry." _He thought to himself as his body went numb.

* * *

><p>"Taro, no, Taro! Stay awake! You have to keep your eyes open! Damn it,Taro!" Kira screamed in his face. She sat with her hands still bound beside the spiky-haired boy, her tears blurring her vision.<p>

Naoko had seen the entire thing from up in the tree. From the moment Taro first found the strength to push himself to his feet, to the moment where Haruo stabbed the heavy blade through his comrade. He had seen Taro look at him and give him a last smile. He had seen him fall to the floor, his blood staining the earth around him.

And he hadn't been able to save him.

He could've saved Taro, or at least warn him of Haruo. But he was a coward, and he didn't speak up for his teammate. If only Naoko hadn't been caught by Daishiro in the first place and the whole thing could have been avoided. But it was too late. Naoko blew his chance and now Taro was gone.

_"Why couldn't I do anything?" _ He thought to himself desperately. _"Why do I always mess __everything up?"_ A boiling heat began to ebb it's way up through his throat and course through his veins. _"Why am I such a screw up?" _Naoko bit his bottom lip in frustration until his teeth broke the skin and a drop of blood formed at the break site. _"I will save you, Kira." _His face turned a deep shade of red from anger and he clenched his fists at his sides. He gritted his teeth and he could feel something strange begin to overcome his whole body. "_I will avenge you, Taro." _

And that's when the world went black.

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><p><strong>I know, I'm evil for putting in yet another cliff hanger but unlike the last time I'm going to try and get the next chapter out so it's not as long of a wait as last time! Anyways I really do LOVE hearing from you guys. Each review I get is like a small little ray of sunshine that brightens up my day and makes me all giddy inside! As I have said before, if you would like to leave me a review just to say hi, that is super awesome as well. Or better yet, a review about kittens! Holy crap I think my happiness meter would burst through the roof if I got a review about kittens! (And I guess about the story too). But seriously, done with rambling now. Thanks for reading and review! :D<br>**


	8. Fear and Fire

**Hello everyone! So as you all probably know, Naruto recently ended and the last chapter was pretty much a giant fan service to all of us to finally see some legit couples (AHHH!) So in case you haven't read the last chapter I won't spoil anything, but since it ended it actually reminded me about this story that I started and then never finished. Now I know I'm basically the worst because it has actually been over two years now since I've updated this and for that I am super sorry. I just randomly got in a writing mood and so here you go! Another chapter to this little tale, enjoy!**

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><p>"Taro! God damnit, Taro." Kira was hunched over the boy's motionless body. Hot tears streamed down her face and landed on his chest. Her voice caught in her throat and her chest felt like it was being constricted, tighter and tighter with each breath. "Come on, you have to keep your eyes open." She pressed her head to his chest and listened for a heartbeat. A tiny, barely audible thump echoed through his thin t-shirt. Although faint it was still definitely there. "Just hold on a little longer, Taro, don't you dare die on me now."<p>

"Give it a rest, little girl." Haruo sneered down at her. He still had Taro's sword grasped in his hand and he drug in through the dust leaving a trail of blood in its wake. "There's nothing you can do. He's already on his way out of this world."

Kira continued to stare down at her fallen comrade. He was right. What else could she do?

Nothing.

She was useless and they were done for.

"Taro you big idiot." She whispered to him although she knew he couldn't hear her. "It's not your time."

What was she going to do without him? Although she hated to admit it, he had become one of her best friends. She didn't want to lose him. She couldn't lose him. Not now, not like this.

"Whoa, what?" Goro gasped in surprised and Kira looked up to see what had caused his sudden outburst.

The towering man was staring wide eyed up at the tree Daishiro and Naoko were standing in. A strange red aura had enveloped the younger boy and three small orbs began to form around his body. The orbs grew and Kira could soon tell that they were actually balls of fire encircling the genin.

"What the-" Daishiro began saying but he was cut off when Naoko turned around to face him.

Fire leaped from the boy's eyes as he grabbed Daishiro's wrist, preventing him from trying to escape. The kunai was still clutched tightly in Daishiro's hand and he used it to slash forward at Naoko. Without even the slightest hesitation Naoko grabbed Daishiro's other wrist and stopped the kunai from advancing any further. Daishiro snarled at the Naoko and tried to wrench his wrists out of the boy's tight grip. His attempt proved useless and it only caused Naoko to tighten his hold on the older man.

The small fire balls continued to circle tightly around Naoko's torso and were now only inches away from making contact with Daishiro. As if on their own, the balls of fire rapidly grew bigger and began to move around Naoko's body in a disoriented manner.

A look of fear washed over Daishiro's face as he stared down at the fire balls getting closer and closer to him. "No, please stop!" The man begged. "Haruo, Goro, do something!" Daishiro screamed down at his two subordinates.

The two other men were frozen in place as they stared up at their leader; a look of utter disbelief filled their eyes.

Daishiro looked at the genin in front of him with pure terror filling his eyes. "Please, don't do this."

Naoko's normal pale blue eyes had turned blood red and they stared fiercely at Daishiro. His face remained still and emotionless as if he wasn't even there or conscious. All traces of the previously sweet and timid genin were gone and what stood in front of the bandit was someone else entirely. Naoko tightened his grip on the older man's wrists and forced him to his knees. The fire orbs spun sporadically around him and danced almost as if they had a mind of their own.

Daishiro stared up at him with tears starting to form in his eyes. "Oh god, oh god, no, please." His voice strained and his entire body shook uncontrollably.

The blonde nin lifted his chin, ever so slightly, and the fire orbs immediately stopped in place above his head. He stared hard at the man in front of him and with the tiniest flick of his gaze the fire balls rocketed down on the man and crashed over him, completely engulfing him and filling his entire body. Daishiro gave out a shrilling scream and the fire orbs disappeared inside his body. Naoko released his grip on the man in front of him and took a small step back. Daishiro fell to all fours on the tree branch and continued to howl out in pain. Steam began to rise off of his body and slowly his skin began to wrinkle and shrivel up. His scream died out into a gagging sound and his whole body began to dry out until his entire skeleton was showing underneath his skin. Daishiro's body stopped shaking and he went completely still. His eyes had dried out and rolled up to the back of his head. Fire slowly seeped out of his back and formed once again into three perfect orbs above his body. What was left of his body crumpled up and plummeted off of the tree branch to the forest floor right in front of Haruo and Goro.

The two bandits stared down at the remains of Daishiro, their mouths agape in shock and fear. The body had shriveled up and the now paper thin skin was a dark brown that enveloped the visible bones underneath.

Kira had seen it all from her place next to her fallen comrade. From when Goro first said something to when Daishiro's mummified body fell from the tree. From all of her time working on a team with Naoko, she had never seen anything like this from him. Him or anyone else she knew for that matter. It was like something had suddenly taken over Naoko's body after Taro collapsed. Kira looked up at her teammate and tried to find any remnants of Naoko in those blood red eyes of his. _Naoko, what happened to you? _

The boy in the tree turned to face the other bandits below and the fire orbs slowly began circling above his head. Goro and Haruo shook with fear and slowly took a step back.

"Wh-what the hell are you?" Haruo stuttered up to Naoko, his lips quivering. "You're a m-m-monster!" The white-haired bandit screamed up at him.

Goro's eyes were wide and he looked down at what remained of his previous leader. He looked back up at Naoko and then to Haruo who was standing next to him. "C-come on, man, we have to get out of here or we'll end up just like Daishiro." The heavy-built man slowly began to take a couple more steps backwards before turning on his heel and running the other way.

Haruo turned to follow and the two bandits hadn't even made two steps before being met by the fire balls in front of them. Naoko had launched himself off of the tree branch and in a flash had cut off the two bandits from their escape. Goro and Haruo tried to turn the other way but the fire orbs had already started orbiting around them in a big circle.

"P-please, don't do this." Haruo squeaked out.

"We'll give you anything!" Goro brought his hands up together in front of his face with a pleading look in his eye. "Just please, spare us."

Without saying a word or even giving a single acknowledgement of their pleas, Naoko began walking towards them. With each step the genin took, the fire orbs would tighten their circle around the two men and would speed up their orbit. The orbs began closing in on them and caused them to go back to back to avoid touching any of the fire balls. When Naoko got within a meter from where they stood the orbs had left about a two inch gap around the men. They stared at the genin and shook their heads slowly, eyes wide and mouths open in intense fear. Naoko brought his right hand out in front of him with his palm open. He gave the two one last look before clenching his hand into a fist and enclosing the fire orbs on them. The fire balls pounced on the two foes and entered their bodies as they had done to Daishiro. Steam rose from their bodies and within seconds the fire balls had evaporated every last ounce of liquid from them. The fire balls appeared from their bodies and the men that had previously stood there crumbled up into a pile of shriveled skin and bones.

The fire balls returned to Naoko's side and begun slowly spinning around him once more. The blonde sand nin turned towards Kira with blood red eyes and a stone hard face. Kira trembled next to the dying Taro and gaped up at Naoko. _He killed them. He killed them all. _She would have been relieved if only for a second, but she could still feel the intensity emanating from the boy in front of her. He began taking slow, small steps towards her. The fire balls began spinning around his body again and sped up as he got closer.

Kira shook uncontrollably and tears formed in the corners of her eyes. "Naoko, please, it's me, Kira." She swallowed hard and looked hard into his eyes, searching for the real Naoko. "I'm your friend, Naoko. Remember me? Snap out of it!" Panic crept up from the pit of her stomach to her throat and consumed her entire body. The fire balls had left his side and were now slowly encircling Kira who was on her knees with her hands still bound behind her back. Naoko now stood a few feet from her and the fire orbs were spinning fast and were tightening their orbit around her. She was sobbing at this point and her words came out in gasps and caught in her throat. "No, please." She stared at him, begging to him to stop. The blonde genin brought his right hand up in front of him, his palm open. The fire orbs were now inches from making contact with her skin. She closed her eyes and did the only thing she could think of and screamed. "NAOKO!"

She felt an intense heat brush by her right bicep and she howled in pain. She fell over on her side and stared at her arm which now had a bloodily red and blistering gash on it from making contact with the fire orb. Her world started to spin and she suddenly felt nauseous. She squeezed her eyes shut begging for the pain to subside but it only intensified and coursed throughout her whole body. She curled her knees up to her chest and cried out in pain.

"Kira!" She opened her eyes to a fuzzy world and saw Naoko laying on the ground in front of her, unconscious. She lifted her gaze up a little bit and saw a tall figure running towards her. "Kira! Can you hear me? Are you okay?" The figure had reached her and was now leaning over her. Kira closed her eyes again and gritted her teeth. She felt something cool touch her arm and she flinched at the sudden contact. She opened her eyes again and this time could make out the dark red hair of Akeno crouched down next to her. He had a bottle in his hand and he was gently pouring water over her arm. "It's going to be alright, Kira. Just hold on there." She felt her head go dizzy again and the world around her go black as she slipped into an unconscious state.

* * *

><p>"Kira? Kira, are you awake?" The black-haired kunoichi slowly opened up her eyes and saw her mom sitting next to her with a concerned look on her face.<p>

Kira made a small groan and felt her mom wrap her arms around her neck in an embrace. "Moooom," she lowly groaned in protest, "you're suffocating me!"

"Oh, honey! I was so worried about you!" Her mom pulled back away from her and cupped Kira's face in her hands.

Kira opened her eyes and looked around to find herself in a crisp, white hospital room. Her right arm was in a sling and her upper arm was wrapped in bandages as was her torso. Her mom let go of her face and Kira pushed herself up into a sitting position with her left arm, wincing in the pain that came with moving.

Her head hurt and she looked over at her mom, a look of confusion in her eyes. "What happened?"

The blonde kunoichi was sitting on the side of her daughter's bed, her normal four pig tails gone. "What all do you remember?"

Kira put her left hand up to her head and ran her fingers through her dark hair. "I don't really know. Everything's a bit fuzzy, but I do remember the bandits and the weird ninja star that attacked me, and Daishiro turning on us, and then Taro-" Her eyes snapped open as the memories all came back to her.

She remembered the blade sticking out through Taro's back and Haruo ripping it out from his body. She remembered how he fell over and the look on his face when he closed eyes and let his body go limp. She remembered Naoko's blood red eyes and how the steam rose from Daishiro's body when the fire orbs entered him. She remembered seeing Haruo and Goro die in front of her and then the fire balls slowly encircle her.

A shot of pain went through her right arm and she instinctively grabbed her arm. Even under the bandages the arm was burning up and she could feel the heat from the wound. Her mom reached for a cool towel and gently pressed it to Kira's forehead to try and calm her down. Kira looked at her mom and gritted her teeth. "Taro and Naoko." She said frantically. "What happened to Taro and Naoko?"

"I think I can help answer that for you."

Kira turned towards the new voice and saw Akeno standing in the doorway to the room. "Akeno." She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey, Kira, how are you feeling?" The red-haired jounin walked over to take a seat in a chair by her bed. He turned towards Temari. "Could I possibly speak to your daughter alone really quick, Temari?"

Her mom gave Akeno a knowing look and nodded her head. "Yes, of course." She turned towards Kira and gave her hand a quick squeeze. "I'll see you in a bit, sweetie." She quickly left the room and left the two of them alone.

"What happened to Taro and Naoko?" She asked again with a little more urgency in her voice.

"Don't worry, they are both fine." Akeno gave her a small smile to reassure her.

"But how? What happened? How did we get back here? What about Naoko and the fire orbs and-"

"Calm down, Kira. It's okay let's just go through one thing at a time and I will explain everything" Akeno gave a small sigh before starting. "So first off Taro and Naoko are both fine. Taro is going to need some serious recovery time staying in bed and he won't be able to train for a while. He lost a lot of blood and has a lot of broken bones and some internal organ damage as well. It'll take a little bit but the doctors are sure that he will make a full recovery."

Kira gave a sigh of relief and closed her eyes. _What a giant idiot, of course it would take more than that to keep him down. _ She looked back at her sensei. "And Naoko?"

"Naoko is fine as well. He actually experienced very minor cuts and scraps and for the most part is perfectly fine. When I went to scout ahead I ran into some of Daishiro's men, as you might have guessed, and by the time I was finished with them I had already summoned one of my foxes to go get help. With extra help from the ninjas in the village we were able to get you three back here safely."

"And what about the fire orbs?" Kira asked timidly, afraid of what the response might be. She shuddered a bit at the memory of those blood red eyes staring at her as the orbs circled closer and closer to her.

Akeno reached a hand up and scratched his head. "Well the thing is, he doesn't actually remember any of it. Luckily I got back right before he enclosed you in the flames and I was able to cast a genjutsu on him to snap him out of it." Akeno looked over to Kira and saw a worried expression on her face. "Kira, I know it was scary, but you have to know that whatever happened to Naoko, it wasn't him. There was something else that took over him and he lost himself in it."

Kira looked down at her lap and twiddled her thumbs together. "You're sure he doesn't remember any of it?"

"From what he's told me it sounds like the last thing he remembers was seeing Taro stabbed and thinking that Taro had died. He apparently thinks that he was knocked unconscious by Daishiro and then I came along to rescue you guys." Akeno said with a little uneasiness in his voice.

Kira tried moving her right arm slightly and winced from the pain. "So he doesn't remember hurting my arm, right?" She brought her emerald eyes up to meet her sensei's gaze.

"No, he does not know that he is responsible for killing those men or hurting you." Akeno replied.

Kira lowered her gaze back to her lap and let out a small sigh. "Good."

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><p><strong>I hope you liked it and don't forget to review and let me know what you think!<strong>


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